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My prime of youth is but a frost of cares,
My feast of joy is but a dish of pain,
My crop of corn is but a field of tares,
And all my good is but vain hope of gain. The day is past, and yet I saw no sun,
And now I live, and now my life is done.
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My tale was heard and yet it was not told,
My fruit is fallen and yet my leaves aregreen;
My youth is spent and yet I am not old,
I saw the world and yet I was not seen. My thread is cut and yet it is not spun,
And now I live, and now my life is done.
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I sought my death and found it in my
womb,
I looed for life and saw it was a shade;
I trod the earth and new it was my tomb,
And now I die, and now I was but made. My glass is full, and now my glass is run,
And now I live, and now my life is done.
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This poem was apparently written in theTower of !ondon by the imprisoned "hidioc
Tichborne, a young "atholic conspirator
against #ueen $li%abeth, the night before he
was e&ecuted. 'hether this account is true ornot, whoever wrote the poem achieved an
ama%ing force of plainness. The poem shows
how powerful unadorned language can be
and what genius it taes to give such
language emotional bite.
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Tremendous feeling is generated by the
directness, the straightforward hammering of
repeated formula and refrain, above all the
plainness of language( $&cept for the
contestable e&ception )fall*n,) the poem is
written entirely in words of one syllable+ Itfeels as if the poet has no time for anything
but star truthand that feeling is attained by
writing so artful that it seems nearly artless.
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In -/0, Tichborne and his father were
arrested and 1uestioned concerning theuse of )popish relics.) Though they
were released without charge, records
suggest that this was not the last timethey were to be 1uestioned by the
authorities over their religion.
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In 2une-/3, Tichborne agreed to tae part
in the 4abington 5lotto murder #ueen
$li%abeth and replace her with the "atholic
Mary #ueen of 6cotswho was ne&t in line tothe throne. The plot was foiled by 6ir
7rancis 'alsinghamusing a double agent
and though most of the conspirators fled,
Tichborne had an injured leg and was forcedto remain in !ondon. 8nAugust -9, he was
arrested and sentenced to death.
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'hile in custody in the Tower of !ondon
on 6eptember -:the eve of hise&ecution
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8n 6eptember =>, -/3, Tichborne wase&ecuted withAnthony 4abington,2ohn 4allard, and four otherconspirators. They were disembowelledwhile still alive on the gallows at Tower
?ill as a warning to other would@beconspirators; however, when the #ueenheard reports of these particularlygruesome e&ecutions, she gave orders
that the remaining seven conspiratorswere to be allowed to hang until deadbefore being disembowelled.
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'ith Tichborne*s, )$legy,) lies a
poem encasing several metaphors thatenable the reader to imagine with
compassion the disturbance of peace
within the thoughts of the poet. This
writer recogni%ed what was happening
in his life before his e&ecution, and
proclaims )My feast of joy is but a dish
of pain)
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'ithin this powerful statement, the poetreali%ed that his last meals were not
that of nourishment, but was that ofpain of great emotional suffering. 'hatwe tae for granted life, the comforts ofhome, food, etc.
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Tichborne*s $legy reveals to the reader
the poet*s reconing with his own death.
It is rare that poets write of their own
demises with the forenowledge of its
untimeliness, as in this case, and the
difficulty of the situation pervadesthroughout the verse. Tichborne clearly
feels that his life is being severed from
its rightful course
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'e are first thrust into a dismal mood
by the first stan%a, which reduces all themeaningful aspects of the poet to
insignificance...in fact, if not for the note
preceding the poem )'ritten...B...before
his e&ecution)< and the name in the title,
we would wonder if the lines weren*t
penned by some bitter old man waiting
for his days to run out.
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5erhaps this was the intention of
Tichborne @ to mae himself feel old andfeeble, so that the reali%ation of his own
impending e&piration could be more
easily accepted. The repetition of the
last line of each stan%a emphasi%es the
poet*s inability to escape his e&ecution,
and its simple, matter@of@fact manner
manages to bring a tired surrender withit )And now...and now)
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The very fact that Tichborne is writingpoetry in the last moments of his life
gives him an element of grace anddignity @ he clearly isn*t losing his witsover his unhappy situation. ?is poem isperfectly iambic pentameter with true ab a b c c rhyme, completely masculinein endings, and a few interestingparallels pull its framewor together
strongly. $ach end rhyme pair issignificantly appropriate, each being anopposite of the other and yet e1uated.
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7or e&le, lines - and 0, )cares) and
)tares,) or lines = and 9, )pain) and )gain.)
'ith these words placed carefully in these
positions, the poet*s youth is degraded further
through the association, becoming first a
)frost of cares,) then e1uated to )tares,) orweeds. This parado&Be1uation follows through
most of the poem, especially well in lines -0
and - )death) C )womb) C )tomb)
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As is customary in elegiac poems beyond theseventeenth century, Tichborne finds some
amount of consolation by the end of hisverse, reali%ing that every man will dieregardless of the time. Tichborne*s elegy tohimself is completed in a self@specific
resolution, yet it can be generally applicableas well; death begins at birth, and the earth isman*s eventual tomb. The poet substitutes ametaphorical hourglass for his life, and he
seems to find some amount of acceptancethrough this as the sands run out with the endof the poem.
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