Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. I. Early Poetry: Chaucer to Donne

Sir Walter Raleigh (1554?–1618)

A Vision upon This Conceit of The Fairy Queen

[Appended to Spenser’s Faery Queen.]

METHOUGHT I saw the grave where Laura lay,

Within that temple where the vestal flame

Was wont to burn: and, passing by that way,

To see that buried dust of living fame,

Whose tomb fair Love and fairer Virtue kept,

All suddenly I saw the Fairy Queen;

At whose approach the soul of Petrarch wept,

And from thenceforth those graces were not seen,

For they this Queen attended; in whose stead

Oblivion laid him down on Laura’s hearse.

Hereat the hardest stones were seen to bleed,

And groans of buried ghosts the heavens did pierce:

Where Homer’s spright did tremble all for grief,

And cursed the access of that celestial thief.