Walter Raleigh The Lie

The life experiences of Sir Walter Raleigh influenced the style of his writing. The style of his writing is revealed in his poems “the lie”, “sir Walter Raleigh to the queen”, and “the nymph’s reply to the shepherd.
Raleigh was born around 1552 in Hayes Barton, Devonshire (pg.1063). Raleigh was famed for being a courtier, a navigator, a poet, and a historian. After a failed expedition in South America he was arrested in connection with destruction of a Spanish settlement (pg.1063) with his confrontation with the Spanish in Venezuela. He lost his son and was forced to return to England (pg.248). Despite a royal command not to engage in battle with Spanish settlers, Raleigh’s fleet entered Spanish territory (pg.248). He was also accused of conspiring against James I and barely avoided his death sentence (pg.1063) following the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603 Raleigh was again accused of conspiring against King
Many consider “the lie” an atheistic poem for its many religious accusations. Though “the lie” has such accusations they are directed solely against earthly bound institutions and human undertakings (pg.2252). Raleigh’s poem “the lie” is based on the concept of disillusionment. This is the process that proceeds by inexorable degrees of stripping one layer of falsity after another until the last in gone (pg. 2251). The last line in each stanza of the poem is actually a variant of the phrase “and give the world the lie” (pg. 2251). Some suggest that Raleigh was not the author of “the lie” because the poem’s puritanical viewpoints (stableford). Because the poem makes no distinctions and offers no policies. The poem is less concerned with organizing human behavior but more concerned with admitting and accepting the truth (stableford). The entire piece was written for the poet himself as a way to reevaluate himself with a coldly clinical and harsh eye