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The Passionate Man's Pilgrimage



By Sir Walter Raleigh


 



Give me my scallop-shell of quiet,
My staff of faith to walk upon,
My scrip of joy, immortal diet,
My bottle of salvation,
My gown of glory, hope's true gage,
And thus I'll make my pilgrimage.

Blood must be my body's balmer,
No other balm will there be given,
Whilst my soul like a white palmer
Travels to the land of heaven,
Where spring the nectar fountains;
And there I'll kiss
The bowl of bliss,
And drink my eternal fill
On every milken hill.
My soul will be a-dry before,
But after it will ne'er thirst more.

And by the happy blissful way
More peaceful pilgrims shall I see,
That have shook off their gowns of clay
And go appareled fresh like me.
I'll bring them first
To slake their thirst,
And then to taste those nectar suckets,
At the clear wells
Where sweetness dwells,
Drawn up by saints in crystal buckets.

And when our bottles and all we
Are filled with immortality,
Then the holy paths we'll travel,
Strewed with rubies thick as gravel,
Ceilings of diamonds, sapphire floors,
High walls of coral and pearl bowers.
From thence to heaven's bribeless hall
Where no corrupted voices brawl,
No conscience molten into gold,
Nor forged accusers bought and sold,
No cause deferred, nor vain-spent journey,
For there Christ is the King's Attorney,
Who pleads for all without degrees,
And he hath angels, but no fees.

When the grand twelve million jury
Of our sins with sinful fury
'Gainst our souls black verdicts give,
Christ pleads his death, and then we live.
Be thou my speaker, taintless pleader,
Unblotted lawyer, true proceeder;
Thou movest salvation even for alms,
Not with a bribed lawyer's palms.

And this is my eternal plea
To him that made heaven, earth and sea:
Seeing my flesh must die so soon,
And want a head to dine next noon,
Just at the stroke when my veins start and spread,
Set on my soul an everlasting head.
Then am I ready, like a palmer fit,
To tread those blest paths which before I writ.



 

Sir Walter Raleigh (1554-1618) was born in Devonshire, England. His family were well connected, and he was half brother to Sir Humphrey and Sir John Gilbert. Although I have spelled his name 'Raleigh'; as that is the way most people know it now, he never actually used that spelling, and is thought to more typically have spelled it 'Ralegh', although he is known to have spelled it in many ways, curiously 'Raleigh' not being one of them.

Raleigh was a protestant, and his father was almost killed by the Catholic Queen Mary; only escaping by hiding in a church tower. Upon the ascension of the protestant Queen Elizabeth I, things greatly improved for the family, and Raleigh became Captain of the Queens Guard. For his part in foiling the 'Babington' conspiracy, aimed at replacing Queen Elizabeth with Catholic Queen Mary, he was awarded a 42,000 acre estate in Ireland.

Raleigh was also involved in fighting the Spanish Armada, and donated the ship the Ark Royal in exchange for an iou for £5000 (an enormous sum of money for the times). Trouble however, did follow him, and after an affair with one of the Queens maids, she had him packed off to the Tower of London to show her displeasure. It was only after one of his armada ships returned with treasure that she had him released.

In 1603, unfortunately for Raleigh, Queen Elizabeth the First died, and the new King, James, had him framed as a member of a plot against the throne and sentenced to life imprisonment. Whilst in the Tower Raleigh wrote "History of the World", which was first published in 1614 in five volumes (but only reached as far as the second Macedonian War in 130 BC), after which he was briefly released; but then re-arrested, and finally sentenced to be beheaded. After which, his head was embalmed and presented to his wife. She apparently kept it with her at all times until she died 29 years later at the age of 82.


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