PRIMARY DOCUMENT

Commendatory Verse by Walter Raleigh (1576)

ORIGINAL IMAGES
The Steele Glas
CONTEXT

This poem by Sir Walter Raleigh was his first to be published. It was included as a commendatory verse at the beginning of the satire The Steele Glas (1576) by the influential English poet, soldier, and critic George Gascoigne. Some spelling has been modernized.

FULL TEXT

The Steele Glas

Walter Rawely of the middle Temple, in commendation of the Steele Glasse.

 

Swete were the sauce, would please ech kind of tast,

The life likewise, were pure that never swerved,

For spyteful tongs, in cankred stomackes plaste,

Deeme worst of things, which best (percase) deserved:

But what for that? this medicine may suffyse,

To scorne the rest, and seke to please the wise.

 

Though sundry mindes, in sundry sorte do deeme,

Yet worthiest wights, yelde prayse for every payne,

But envious braynes, do nought (or light) esteme,

Such stately steppes, as they cannot attaine.

For who so reapes, renowne above the rest,

With heapes of hate, shal surely be opprest.

 

Wherefore to write, my censure of this booke,

This Glasse of Steele, unpartially doth shewe,

Abuses all, to such as in it looke,

From prince to poore, from high estate to lowe,

As for the verse, who lifts like trade to trye,

I feare me much, shal hardly reache so high.

 

CITE THIS ENTRY
APA Citation:
Raleigh, Walter. Commendatory Verse by Walter Raleigh (1576). (2020, December 07). In Encyclopedia Virginia. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/commendatory-verse-by-walter-raleigh-1576.
MLA Citation:
Raleigh, Walter. "Commendatory Verse by Walter Raleigh (1576)" Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, (07 Dec. 2020). Web. 25 Sep. 2023
Last updated: 2020, December 07
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