Poet's Choice

Turns snow and silk and milk to dust.

The light, the belly, lips and breath,

He dims, discolors, and destroys,

With those he feeds (but fills not) Death

Which sometimes were the food of Joys:

Yea, Time doth dull each lively wit,

And dries all wantonness with it.

O cruel Time, which takes in trust

Our youth, our joys, and all we have,

And pays us but with age and dust;

Who in the dark and silent grave,

When we have wandered all our ways,

Shuts up the story of our days.

The silk, snow, milk are sweet, as are the violet breath, the lips of jelly and that belly soft as down. Love's droll recipe for the perfect lover's "inside" -- nothing but "wantonness and wit" -- is delicious. But at the midpoint, Time's dust and rust bring worldly knowledge. Raleigh was himself worldly, a political and military figure and also a poet. Not incongruous skills: Elizabeth I and Abraham Lincoln both wrote good verses. Seeing from more than one angle characterizes skillful politicians and poets. That skill is related to the delight in hearing changes of tone, as in this poem's dramatic reversal: from its opening dance to its relentless final march. Writing your way along an effective route from that beginning to that ending might make a good test for aspiring poets or speechwriters. Raleigh manages it well; he had a good ear.

(Raleigh's poem can be found in "English Renaissance Poetry: A Collection of Shorter Poems from Skelton to Jonson," edited by John Williams. Univ. of Arkansas Press. © 1990 by John Williams.)