Raleigh Was Right

"Raleigh Was Right" is a poem by William Carlos Williams, published in 1940 and composed in response to the Elizabethan exchange between Christopher Marlowe, in "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love", and Walter Raleigh, with "The Nymph's Reply".

Horton Foote's Roots in a Parched Ground, the opening play of The Orphans' Home Cycle, takes its title from a line in this poem.

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Raleigh was right

We cannot go to the country for the country will bring us no peace What can the small violets tell us that grow on furry stems in the long grass among lance-shaped leaves?

Though you praise us and call to mind the poets who sung of our loveliness it was long ago! long ago! when country people would plow and sow with flowering minds and pockets at ease—if ever this were true.

Not now. Love itself a flower with roots in a parched ground. Empty pockets make empty heads. Cure it if you can but do not believe that we can live today in the country for the country will bring us no peace.


 * — William Carlos Williams