Life is a Metaphor
Raleigh’s go-to literary device is the metaphor. Direct comparisons without using “like” or “as” permeate nearly every stanza of his verse. If the written word is capable of telling us something about the poet, then it is safe to assume that Sir Walter Raleigh was one of those people gifted with the power to see patterns in things:
“Know that Love is a careless child,”
“What is our life? A play of passion,
“Our mirth the music of division,”
“A poisoned serpent covered all with flowers,
Mother of sighs, and murderer of repose,”
The Shadow of Death
The shadow of death lingers over much of Raleigh’s poetry. Since the chronology of Raleigh’s poetry has never been adequately determined, it impossible to know for sure how much of his verse was written while imprisoned in the Tower of London in the decade before his execution. The recurring motif of death is highly suggestive, however, poems like “The Ocean to Cynthia”
“Thus home I draw, as death's long night draws on;
Yet every foot, old thoughts turn back mine eyes”
and “Like Hermit Poor”
“And at my gates despair shall linger still,
To let in death when love and fortune will.”
The Light of Humor
Juxtaposed to the darkness of verse in which death seems a permanent lingering presence are those poems united by a single motif: humor. Consider the humorous opening lines of “Song of Myself”
“I was a Poet!
But I did not know it,
Neither did my Mother,
Nor my Sister nor my Brother.
The Rich were not aware of it;
The Poor took no care of it.”
And the humorous twist which ends “To a Lady with an Unruly and Ill-mannered Dog Who Bit Several Persons of Importance”
“So when my colleague makes his moan
Of careless cooks, and warts, and debt,
Enlarge his views, restore his tone,
And introduce him to your Pet!”
Repetition
Another recurring motif in the verse of Raleigh is repetition. Several of his works derive their power from literary devices based on the power of repetition.
Anaphora (repeating words at the start of a verse)
“Here lies the noble warrior that never blunted sword;
Here lies the noble courtier that never kept his word;
Here lies his excellency that governed all the state;”
Epimone (the frequent repetition of a phrase or question)
Demonstrated in the lines which conclude all but the final stanza of “The Lie:
And give the world the lie.
Give potentates the lie.
For thou must give the lie.
Give everyone the lie.
Give arts and schools the lie.
Spare not to give the lie.
Time as Active Agent
Time takes on a symbolic power through repetition. Rather than utilized as lyrical imagery to denote chronological passage which objectively observes changes, Raleigh tends to engage references to time as active agents of change; destructive agents more often than not:
“Even such is time, which takes in trust
Our youth, our joys, and all we have,
And pays us but with age and dust,”
Or
“But time, which nature doth despise
And rudely gives her love the lie,
Makes hope a fool,”
