Sir Walter Raleigh (c.

1552-1618) led an adventurous life, being credited with introducing potatoes

and tobacco to England, as well as being a favourite courtier of Queen Elizabeth I, although he fell
foul of her successor, King James I, and ended his life on the executioner’s block. He was also an
accomplished poet whose work anticipated the metaphysical style of John Donne.

There is a famous portrait of Raleigh (in London’s National Portrait Gallery) that shows him
alongside his son Walter (1593-1618), who was the addressee of “Sir Walter Raleigh to his Son”.
The younger Walter grew up to be somewhat unruly and mischievous. He was killed during his
father’s disastrous final expedition to Guiana.

The poem

Three things there be that prosper up apace

And flourish, whilst they grow asunder far,
But on a day, they meet all in one place,
And when they meet, they one another mar;
And they be these: the wood, the weed, the wag.
The wood is that which makes the gallow tree;
The weed is that which strings the hangman's bag;
The wag, my pretty knave, betokeneth thee.
Mark well, dear boy, whilst these assemble not,
Green springs the tree, hemp grows, the wag is wild,
But when they meet, it makes the timber rot,
It frets the halter, and it chokes the child.
  Then bless thee, and beware, and let us pray
  We part not with thee at this meeting day.

Discussion

The poem is sometimes printed as a sonnet of fourteen lines, following the Shakespearian rhyme
scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. However, the final couplet seems to be unnecessary to the
sense of the poem and an unwelcome addition. The poem works far better with twelve lines, and
that is how it often appears.

The poem has to be approached with the understanding that it was intended to be ironic, which was
the tone that best suited Raleigh’s powers as a poet. The irony, which takes the form of black
humour, came from a man who knew all about the misfortunes and uncertainties of life and how the
unpredictable coming together of things can have good or bad consequences. Although the poem is
addressed to a young child (“my pretty knave”) Raleigh would have had a wider audience in mind,
who would have known all about the vicissitudes of life.

The first four lines introduce the theme in the form of a puzzle or riddle, stating that there are three
things that “grow asunder far” but, when brought together “all in one place”, “they one another mar”.
The reader is thus invited to hazard a guess as to what these might be, and is thus encouraged to
read further.

The second group of four lines states what these three things are, but does not fully answer the
riddle. In the fifth line they are named (“the wood, the weed, the wag”), which continues the
suspense for just a little longer, and the following three lines explain, in turn, what these are. By
“wood” is meant “the gallows tree”, the “weed” is the hemp that “strings the hangman’s bag” (which
is put over the head of the condemned man), and “the wag, my pretty knave, betokeneth thee”.

In the final four lines (assuming that one ignores the extra couplet) the puzzle is solved, introduced
by “Mark well, dear boy”. The eighth/ninth lines (“whilst these assemble not, / Green springs the tree,
hemp grows, the wag is wild”) refers back to the poem’s opening lines, but then Raleigh springs the
surprise with “But when they meet, it makes the timber rot, / It frets the halter, and it chokes the
child.” It is interesting to note that the three elements are seen to suffer in equal measure, each
being harmed by the presence of the other two. The choking of the child is therefore seen as being
no more important than the rotting of the tree (dead trees, with bare branches, were often used as
gallows) and the fretting, or chafing, of the hangman’s rope.

This equivalence is therefore to be regarded in an ironic way, as is the notion that a child might be
hanged for merely being “wild”. The poem can therefore be regarded in a similar light to children’s
stories down the centuries in which naughtiness is punished with a savagery that far outweighs the
offence. The stories of the Brothers Grimm or the “Cautionary Tales” of Hilaire Belloc come to mind
in this context. The generally light-hearted tone is also indicative that the message must not be taken
too seriously by its original addressee.

That said, it should be remembered that Raleigh lived in dangerous times when a person could be
hanged for a wide variety of crimes, and the poem is ominously prescient in that Raleigh would die
by execution. However, as a nobleman he, or his son, would never have faced death by hanging
given that beheading was the means of execution reserved for their class.

This poem therefore contains a dual message, depending on how old the reader or hearer might be.
It either works as a “puzzle poem” which contains a dreadful warning for a wayward child, or it
emphasises the fragility of life and points to the tragic irony of existence.

The twelfth line would seem to be the proper place to end this poem, because the extra couplet that
makes it into a sonnet only serves to spoil the overall effect:

“Then bless thee, and beware, and let us pray

  We part not with thee at this meeting day.”

There is simply no need for it, and it detracts from the flow of the preceding lines by adding a new
concept that is not only unwelcome to the poem as it stands but adds a new puzzle right at the end,
namely the need to explain the meaning of the last line which would appear to belong to another
poem entirely.