RALEIGH

Sir Walter Raleigh was a man

Of excellent deportment;

He could advise a King or Khan

What going into court meant;

When Spenser wrote his Faerie Queene

Sir Walter Raleigh said it

Betrayed a wit both sharp and clean

( We wonder if he read it ).

Good Queen Elizabeth one day

Was out ( perhaps for shopping ),

And Raleigh chanced along the way

Where she in wrath was stopping.

“How can I get across that mud?”

She asked; and in the muddle

Sir Walter showed his gentle blood —

His cloak soon bridged the puddle.

A smile replaced the good queen's frown,

She paused there for a minute

To set more straight the royal crown

( It had no hat pin in it ).

And then she murmured low to Walt.:

“Sir, you shall see my tailor.”

He answered: “If I'm worth my salt,

Good queen, make me a sailor!”

And so good Queen Elizabeth

Gave him a high position —

He drew his pay like drawing breath

And led an expedition

That sailed across the raging seas

For gold and slaves and cocoa,

And battled with the biting breeze

Along the Orinoco.

Alas! It may have been the cloak

That was in mire imbedded,

Or possibly some words he spoke

That made him be beheaded.

But let us learn this lesson here

From poor Sir Walter Raleigh:

The favor of the great,‘ tis queer,

Oft has a grim finale.