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William Carlos Williams Raleigh Was Right

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In the poem “Raleigh was Right” by William Carlos Williams, there are many examples of the author comparing the two other poems, “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” by Christopher Marlowe and “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” by Walter Raleigh, to prove his point that nothing is everlasting, whether it’s love or nature. Williams uses the time he lives in to act pessimistically about love and life.
The first example of Williams using these poems to support his claim is when he uses the time he lives in to prove that not everything in life will last forever. This poem was written in 1944, which was when world war two was currently happening, so he uses the example of world peace that used to be on earth and is now no longer present to prove …show more content…

Not only this, but nature isn’t everlasting as well. This is proven when Williams writes, “Not now.Love itself a flower with roots in parched ground” (Stanza three). This quote proves that Williams believes flowers won’t last forever, especially when the flowers are compared to love. In “The Passionate Shepherd to his Love” the author writes, “And I will make thee beds of roses, And a thousand fragrant posies, A cap of flowers, and a kirtle, Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;” (Stanza three).In this quote, Marlowe is trying to convince the readers that beautiful and everlasting flowers, in a way, are similar to his love, while Williams is going against this statement and completely disagreeing. He says that nothing is everlasting, no matter how hard you try to make it be. Sir Walter Raleigh agrees with Williams in his poem, when he writes, “The flowers do fade, and wanton fields..”(Stanza three).
The last way that Williams uses both poems to prove his claim is by saying that money is the only thing that will make people happy in that present moment. He says this in stanza three when he writes, “Empty pockets make empty heads.” This quote is saying that the more empty your pocket is, the more empty your head will be. This quote is also showing lots of pessimism around life because the quote

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