Elizabeth I Poems

Poems » elizabeth i

Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603) was Queen of England, France (in name only), and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. She is sometimes referred to as The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, and was immortalised by Edmund Spenser as the Faerie Queene. Elizabeth I was the fifth and final monarch of the House of Tudor (the other Tudor monarchs having been her grandfather Henry VII, her father Henry VIII, her half-brother Edward VI, and her half-sister Mary I), although she could also be regarded as the sixth Tudor monarch if one counts the nine-days' queenship of her second cousin, Lady Jane Grey. She reigned for almost 45 years, during a period marked by increases in English power and influence worldwide, as well as great religious turmoil within England. Elizabeth's reign has been referred to as the Elizabethan era or the Golden Age of Elizabeth. Playwrights William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and Ben Jonson all flourished during this era; Francis Drake became the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe; Francis Bacon laid out his philosophical and political views; and English colonisation of North America took place under Sir James Huckle, Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Humphrey Gilbert. Elizabeth is generally considered to have been a decisive ruler. Her favourite motto was video et taceo ("I see and keep silent"). This last quality, viewed with impatience by her counsellors, often saved her from political and marital misalliances. Like her father Henry VIII, she was a writer and poet. She granted Royal Charters to several famous organisations, including Trinity College, Dublin (officially the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Elizabeth near Dublin) in 1592 and the British East India Company (1600). In her nearly forty-five years as queen, she created only nine peerage dignities, one earldom and seven baronies in the Peerage of England, and one barony in the Peerage of Ireland. She also reduced the number of Privy Counsellors from thirty-nine to nineteen, and later to fourteen. Despite the fact that she did not leave a male heir, her forty-five years as Queen allowed a certain stabilization which had not been possible for the monarchs immediately preceding her. In particular, her reforms of the Church of England established a compromise between Catholic and Protestant positions.

on the seashore
 
 
On the seashore of endless worlds children meet.
The infinite sky is motionless overhead and th... [read poem]
when i was young and fair
 
 
When I was fair and young, and favor graced me,
Of many was I sought their mistress for to be.... [read poem]
the gardener 38
 
 
My love, once upon a time your poet launched a great epic in his mind.
Alas, I was not careful,... [read poem]
gitanjali 35
 
 
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where t... [read poem]
fruit-gathering xxxvi
 
 
UPAGUPTA, the disciple of Buddha, lay asleep on the dust by the city wall of Mathura.
Lamps wer... [read poem]
fruit-gathering lv
 
 
Tulsidas, the poet, was wandering, deep in thought, by the Ganges, in that lonely spot where they bu... [read poem]
the last bargain
 
 
"Come and hire me," I cried, while in the morning I was walking on the stone-paved road.
Sword ... [read poem]
playthings
 
 
Child, how happy you are sitting in the dust, playing with a broken twig all the morning.
I smi... [read poem]
the gardener 85
 
 
Who are you, reader, reading my poems an hundred years hence?
I cannot send you one single flow... [read poem]
the gardener 66
 
 
A wandering madman was seeking the touchstone, with matted locks, tawny and dust-laden, and body wor... [read poem]
crossing 16
 
 
You came to my door in the dawn and sang; it angered me to be awakened from sleep, and you went away... [read poem]
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