What does this poem mean? I cant analyze it!!!!?

Question

“The Lie”
Sir Walter Raleigh

Go, Soul, the body's guest,
Upon a thankless errand;
Fear not to touch the best;
The truth shall be thy warrant.
Go, since I needs must die,
And give the world the lie.

Say to the court it glows
And shines like rotten wood;
Say to the church, it shows
What's good, and doth no good:
If court and church reply,
Then give them both the lie.

Tell potentates they live
Acting by others' action;
Not loved unless they give,
Not strong but by a faction.
If potentates reply,,
Give potentates the lie.

Tell men of high condition,
That manage the estate,
Their purpose is ambition,
Their practice only hate.
And if they once reply,
Then give them all the lie.

Tell them that brave it most,
They beg for more by spending,
Who, in their greatest cost,
Seek nothing but commending.
And if they make reply,
Then give them all the lie.

Tell zeal it wants devotion;
Tell love it is but lust;
Tell time it is but motion;
Tell flesh it is but dust.
And wish them not reply,
For thou must give the lie.

Tell age it daily wasteth;
Tell honor how it alters;
Tell beauty how she blasteth;
Tell favor how she falters:
And as they shall reply,
Give every one the lie.

Tell wit how much it wrangles
In tickle points of niceness;
Tell wisdom she entangles
Herself in over-wiseness:
And when they do reply,
Straight give them both the lie.

Tell physic of her boldness;
Tell skill it is pretension;
Tell charity of coldness;
Tell law it is contention:
And as they do reply,
So give them still the lie.

Tell fortune of her blindness;
Tell nature of decay;
Tell friendship of unkindness;
Tell justice of delay:
And if they will reply,
Then give them all the lie.

Tell arts they have no soundness,
But vary by esteeming;
Tell schools they want profoundness,
And stand too much on seeming:
If arts and school reply,
Give arts and school the lie.

Tell faith it’s fled the city;
Tell how the country erreth;
Tell manhood shakes off pity;
Tell virtue least preferreth:
And if they do reply,
Spare not to give the lie.

So when thou hast, as I
Commanded thee, done blabbing,--
Although to give the lie
Deserves no less than stabbing,--
Stab at thee, he that will,
No stab the soul can kill

Answer 1

My goodness. This is a very interesting poem about how we are lied to throughout our lives and have to deal with those facts. It would fit astonishingly well into any media studies course and am glad to have read it. Tis true that Walter Raleigh was in Queen Elizabeth's command and was held in the tower. The first respondant had excellent points, but after that... there were few comments that made sense. Sorry folks.

It is most assuredly not about SEX!! Except that we might lie to get it. The point is that lies are imbedded into our very framework. We cannot speak a truth. Wit does get tiresome. Beauty is used for naught. There is nothing that is singularly GOOD- and Raleigh discovers it with a lovely cadence. The repeptitive nature of "Tell them the lie" can be seen as a stab at church and country, but it goes deeper than than. He mocks consumers and landowners. Everyone is lying and he knows it.

What I mean is simple that when people attempt to define something by using Good or Bad, they are intrinsically wrong.

I hope you do well in your life and take the time to read lots of poetry.

Answer 2

I have learning disablities,.. so I'm not reading it all.

As much as I read sounds like someone is dieing and after they die they will be remembered as something greater then they were.

More like the Memory of the person then their soul.

Like they may have been a rapest and a murderer,.. but everyone will celabrate them and mourn them after their death as some nice, sweet person that did great things. Either that means their secret dies with them or the bad things they did in life will be over looked.

At the same time it's hopeing the Soul will not be like the body was and can get every where the body couldn't and even get into Heaven if that can be found,.. without being caught out for all the crooked things they did physically,.. like maybe they cheated on their wife and raped women... but that was the body actting without the souls constant or something.

Now that they are dead, the Memory is a lie of perfection and their Soul is pretending to be perfect and getting away with everything and slipping off to some pedastol of greatness for it'se self as well some how.

But I couldn't read it all.

Answer 3

There is a school of thought that says if a poem is old and by someone famous then it must be a piece of art...

I have to disagree... this is a pice of overblown drivel... as to what it means.. I mean... who cares?

I will give it a read and post my thoughts in a while....



Oakeley...doakeley...

I reckon Sir Walter was a little pissed because ole Queen Bessie [Elizabeth I] had spurned him...

Furthermore, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London and later beheaded...

I reckon this was written during his incarceration and shows how jolly fed up with the world he was...

He must have seen it as grossly-unfair... especially afetr all of the discoveries and pirating that he had done in the name of the state!

This, I would think, is his final lament... a stab at all of those in society and culture that had abandonned him... and just to make things equal, he is in turn abandonning them and undoing their theories...

There really are better poems than this rant...

Good luck with your essay!

Answer 4

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RE:
What does this poem mean? I cant analyze it!!!!?
“The Lie”
Sir Walter Raleigh

Go, Soul, the body's guest,
Upon a thankless errand;
Fear not to touch the best;
The truth shall be thy warrant.
Go, since I needs must die,
And give the world the lie.

Say to the court it glows
And shines like rotten wood;
Say to the church, it...

Answer 5

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It's a crappy poem. Whoever wrote it isn't really much of a poet, but obviously thinks that he or she is pretty deep. It looks like an attempt to describe the physical reality of the brain, and the more intangible reality of the mind or the wits that the brain makes possible.

Answer 6

Sir Walter Raleigh The Lie

Answer 7

It shouldn't matter because it means crap. It means almost as little as a fish dying. Tell your teacher that you disagree with it, like I do

Answer 8

holy crap that is long
from what i read, it seems that the poem is basically giving examples of what lies are or can do
things like betrayal, loss of hope, death, etc

Answer 9

my high school ap english teacher belives that every work of literature is about sex... so it probably has something to do with sex

Answer 10

it means the soul will bear all no matter how much you lie the soul will tell