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Chidiock Tichborne's Elegy
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Tichborne's Elegy
Christina Aldapa
YouTube Clip
Theme
Likes / Dislikes
- I like the story behind the poem
- I like that it is written for his wife
- Easy to read
About the Poem
- Tichborne is too young to die
Critics
- Type of Poem : Elegy
- Elegy is a funeral song or lament for the dead.
- Written with a letter for his wife Agnes
- poem is about his life
- Written the night before his execution
- Setting: Tower in London
- One Syllable
This poem was apparently written in the Tower of London by the imprisoned Chidiock Tichborne, a young Catholic conspirator against Queen Elizabeth, the night before he was executed. Whether this account is true or not, whoever wrote the poem achieved an amazing force of plainness. The poem shows how powerful unadorned language can be and what genius it takes to give such language emotional bite. Tremendous feeling is generated by the directness, the straightforward hammering of repeated formula and refrain, above all the plainness of language: Except for the contestable exception "fall'n," the poem is written entirely in words of one syllable! It feels as if the poet has no time for anything but stark truth—and that feeling is attained by writing so artful that it seems nearly artless.
—Robert Pinsky
Tichborne 's Elegy
Chidiock Charles Tichborne
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.
My tale was heard and yet it was not told,
My fruit is fallen, and yet my leaves are green,
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.
I sought my death and found it in my womb,
I looked for life and saw it was a shade,
I trod the earth and knew 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.
Born in Southampton circa 1558
Catholic Family
His life changed when Queen
Elizabeth 1 made Catholicisms illegal
Tichborne joined the conspiracy known
as Babington Plot, which was aimed to assassinate Queen Elizabeth 1 and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots.