The Poetry Corner

Sir Walter Raleigh.

By James Barron Hope

Whether in velvet white, slashed, and be-pearled, And rich in knots of clustering gems a-glow: Or, in his rusted armor, he unfurled St. George's Cross by Oronoko's flow; He was a man to note right well as one Who shot his arrows straightway at the sun. Dark was his hair, his beard all crisp and curled. And narrow-lidded were his piercing eyes, Anhungered in their glances for a world That he might win by daring enterprise, - Explorer, soldier, scholar, poet, he Not only wrote but acted historie! - And that great Captain, of our Saxon stock, Took his last slumber on the ghastly block!