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SIR WALTER RALEIGH (1552–1618)
Statesman, coin-tier, soldier, sailor, explorer, pirate, colonizer, historian, philosopher, poet, Walter Raleigh was bora in Devonshire and entered military service when a very young man. His brave deeds earned him great fame, and Queen Elizabeth raised him in her favour and made him a knight. At that time England was at war with Spain, the most powerful defender of Catholic reaction in Europe. Sir Walter fought the Spaniards at sea He founded the colony of Virginia in North America, where, unlike his successors, he tried to establish friendly relations with the Indians. It was he who brought potatoes and tobacco to Europe.
After the death of Queen Elizabeth, King James I made peace with Spain, and in order to please the former enemies of England he imprisoned Sir Walter. Raleigh was accused of plotting against the king and sentenced to death. He spent thirteen years in the To'wer of London, expecting execution every day. While in prison he planned to write a "History of the World", but only one volume of this vast project was completed. Besides that he wrote works on geography and on ship-building and some beautiful poems. In 1616 Raleigh was allowed to lead an expedition to South America to bring back gold and jewels. The expedition was a failure; on the way back Raleigh fought a sea-battle against some Spaniards and returned to face the protest of Spain, as a result of which he was rearrested and beheaded by King James's orders.
Raleigh was much interested in science and literature. He organized an "academy", a circle in which atheistic views were discussed. Its members included Sir Walter's friends: Thomas Harriot (1560–1621), the most distinguished English mathematician and astronomer before Newton; Christopher Marlowe [ma:lou], the greatest English dramatist before Shakespeare; Edmund Spenser, the foremost poet of the time (whom Raleigh helped to attain fame), and Ben Jonson, the most influential playwright and poet of his period (who for several years was the tutor of Raleigh's son).
Sir Walter Raleigh was an outstanding poet himself. Much of his poetry is lost, and we know only about thirty poems written by him. They are full of profound wisdom, written with great elegance and simplicity of style, and are remarkably expressive. His best poem is "The Lie", or “The Soul's Errand", said to have been composed in prison; in it he denounced the cruelty, hypocrisy and social inequality of his time. Even if he had written nothing else, this poem alone would be sufficient for us to consider him a major poet.
Some of his poems and his prose work "The Discovery of the Empire of Guiana" (1596) have been translated into Russian.