21. Raleigh also wrote popular poetry during his imprisonment in the Tower
Besides tweaking the sensibilities of King James VI and I while he was His Majesty’s prisoner, Raleigh wrote poetry while in residence in the Tower. Much of Raleigh’s poetry was of a personal nature, reflecting the experiences of his own lifetime and the resultant senses of loss, of love, and of the passage of time. Some were short ditties, others long poems of a classical nature a la Edmund Spenser or John Donne, both of whom were his contemporaries, though neither enjoyed his fame during their lifetimes. Some of Raleigh’s poetry served to keep his accomplishments, many of which he exaggerated, in the public eye as he squandered his time in the tower.
