Poor Sir Walter Raleigh. A gifted poet, masterful networker, adventurer, sailor and empire builder, he is most famous for gallantly spreading his cloak over a puddle on the ground for Queen Elizabeth to walk across, thereby saving her from wet feet. This one act has meant that his other considerable talents are largely unheralded, which is a pity, because Sir Walter was one of the most gifted poets of his generation and gained considerable favor at Court with his Queen.
Raleigh came from a prominent family with a history of seafaring. He was only in his mid-teens when he fought alongside the Huguenots in France, and when he returned to England he attended Oxford University, but left without earning his degree. He then went to London to study Law. His first poem appeared in a publication shortly afterwards as the foreword to George Gascoigne's satire "The Steele Glass". There were few poetic offerings in the years that followed, primarily due to to his participation in overseas campaigns. It was when he was called to Elizabeth I's Court and appointed to the role of the Queen's personal guard that he wrote most of his poetry. The Queen was extremely enamored with him, and his poetry really played on this admiration, as most of it was designed to flatter her and secure her favor.
However, when Elizabeth learned that Raleigh was secretly married, she ordered his imprisonment in the Tower of London. Ever the smooth talker he managed to convince her to allow him to sail to Venezuela in search of gold. He participated in a raid on the Spanish port of Cadiz and his favor with the Queen was restored. Having the favor of the Queen did not ultimately secure his safety under her successor, King James I, who saw him as distrustful, and who imprisoned him in the Tower, and he was ultimately beheaded outside the Palace of Westminster in 1618.
Sir Walter wrote thirty-six poems, the better known including "A Farewell To False Love", "On The Cards and Dice" and "A Vision Upon The Faerie Queen", the latter an ode on the epic "The Faerie Queen" by Edmund Spenser, a close personal friend, who gained his own favor with the Queen purely through Raleigh's behest.
