THE LIE
by: Sir Walter Raleigh
- O, Soul,
the body's guest,
- Upon a thankless arrant!
- Fear not to touch the best;
- The truth shall be thy warrant:
- Go, since I needs must die,
- And give the world the lie.
-
- Say to the court it glows
- And shines like rotten wood;
- Say to the church it shows
- What's good, and doth no good:
- If court and church reply,
- Then give them both the lie.
-
- Tell potentates they live
- Acting by others' action,
- Not loved unless they give,
- Not strong but by a faction.
- If potentates reply,
- Give potentates the lie.
-
- Tell men of high condition
- That manage the estate,
- Their purpose is ambition,
- Their practice only hate:
- And if they make reply,
- Then give them all the lie.
-
- Tell them that brave it most,
- They beg for more by spending,
- Who, in their greatest cost,
- Seek nothing but commending:
- And if they make reply,
- Then give them all the lie.
-
- Tell zeal it wants devotion;
- Tell love it is but lust;
- Tell time it is but motion;
- Tell flesh it is but dust:
- And wish them not reply,
- For thou must give the lie.
-
- Tell age it daily wasteth;
- Tell honor how it alters;
- Tell beauty how she blasteth;
- Tell favor how she falters:
- And as they shall reply,
- Give every one the lie.
-
- Tell wit how much it wrangles
- In tickle points of niceness;
- Tell wisdom she entangles
- Herself in over-wiseness:
- And when they do reply,
- Straight give them both the lie.
-
- Tell physic of her boldness;
- Tell skill it is pretension;
- Tell charity of coldness;
- Tell law it is contention:
- And as they do reply,
- So give them still the lie.
-
- Tell fortune of her blindness;
- Tell nature of decay;
- Tell friendship of unkindness;
- Tell justice of delay:
- And if they will reply,
- Then give them all the lie.
-
- Tell arts they have no soundness,
- But vary by esteeming;
- Tell schools they want profoundness,
- And stand too much on seeming:
- If arts and school reply,
- Give arts and school the lie.
-
- Tell faith it fled the city;
- Tell how the country erreth;
- Tell manhood shakes off pity;
- Tell virtue least preferreth:
- And if they do reply,
- Spare not to give the lie.
-
- So when thou hast, as I
- Commanded thee, done blabbing,--
- Although to give the lie
- Deserves no less than stabbing,--
- Stab at thee, he that will,
- No stab the soul can kill.
'The Lie' is reprinted from English
Poems. Ed. Edward Chauncey Baldwin. New York: American Book
Company, 1908. |
MORE POEMS BY SIR WALTER RALEIGH |
|