Context

Tichborn and his father suffered the anti-Catholic

laws promulgated by Queen Elizabeth I
Involved in the Babington Plot to assassinate the
queen and replace her with the Mary, Catholic Queen
of Scots, who was next in line to the throne
Got arrested due to foiling of a double-agent and
sentenced to death on 14 August  The poem written
on 19 September 1586, the eve of his execution, was
enclosed with a letter to his wife Agnes
On the eve of his execution

Context
The 16th Century was a simpler time and many more
people were truly devoted to their faith asTichbourne
was born a Catholic in England at a time where they
were being hounded and harassed by the Protestants.
Many influential Catholics spent their time trying to
devise a way to get a Catholic monarch back on the
throne to re-establish their freedom to worship.
context
Anyway, he was caught and he was executed. He was
pretty young and in this poem we can see that he
believes that he is dying too young, without the chance
to experience some of the most interesting or
important aspects of life.
The poem was scrawled in his final letter to his wife.
Analysing The Poem
First Stanza
 My prime of youth(best of youth) is
but a frost of cares(coldness of
sadness)
 My feast of joy is but a dish of pain
 My crop of corn(life) is but a field of
tares(unwanted situations)
 And all my good is but vain hope of
gain
 The day is past,(life has ended) and
yet I saw no sun(nothing worthwhile
resulted)
 And now I live, and now my life is
done.
Interpretation
 This is just the first stanza
within which he focuses on
the despair of one who is
about to be executed. This is
braver than many of the
executed who struggle to say
something noble at the very
end, or to curse the world–
Tichborne focuses on his loss
of life. One thing to note is
the strong tone of regret,
blending of opposites to show how things are as they
should not be
 Stanza 1
 Line 1 – ‘prime of youth’(best of Youth) vs. ‘frost
of cares’(coldness of sadness)
Oxymoron because – he’s at the best stage
of his life and yet he is also at the end.
 Line 2 – ‘feast of joy’ vs. ‘dish of pain’
Oxymoron because – feast are great and all
about huge variety and opportunity, but he
is constricted to one pretty ugly prospect of
a dish!
 Line 3 – ‘crop of corn’(life) vs. ‘field of
tares’(Unwanted situation)
Oxymoron because – he stresses his fertility
and that this is his time for procreation, but
also that his potency is now useless and he
won’t get a chance to have any kiddiwinks
 best point in life; spring of life; full
of options, opportunities and
trouble free vs. winter of his life,
approaching the end, miserable
with worries
 most enjoyable point of his life; a
happy time filled with many
options (courses at the feast) vs.
life of pain and misery; the only
dish he can eat is going to kill him.
 a full and fertile field
(connotations about his own
fertility at this age) vs. a field
whose crop has failed and is all
wasted.
 First stanza
The phrase ‘frost of cares’ links us to winter and immediately
makes us associate his existences with being cold and miserable,
but also winter suggest ending and death, while cares indicate that
he is not at peace with his death, but troubled by the thoughts of
what he is missing out on.
Then we’ve got the imagery of the ‘field of tares’ (wasted
crops/destroyed) and the ‘fruit is dead’, which again link us to
winter when the trees are bare and the crops are stunted by the
frost and lack of sun and so unable to produce.
Contrast this deathly winter with his actual state of health and
existence, which is described as ‘prime of youth’, so the pinnacle of
his existence, or with green leaves. These ideas create an image of
a man who is at his least vulnerable to death, is as fit and as
healthy as he could ever be, and yet he is condemned to death and
he finds it a cruel irony.
Stanza 2
Stanza 2
 The opposites here grow more subtle–
 My tale was heard(the poet had a
life) and yet it was not told(it was
not lived to the fullest)
 My fruit is fallen(life is ending),
and yet my leaves are green,(he is
too young to die)
 My youth is spent and yet I am
not old,
 I saw the world (birth)and yet I
was not seen;(nothing worthy
happened to life)
 thread is cut(life is ending) and
yet it is not spun,(it is not lived
out)
 And now I live, and now my life is
done.
Interpretation
we hear slight indications that this
situation might not be fair, at least to
the point that Tichborne sees it.
Everybody knows his story yet he
hasn’t told it. And we go through some
more images, all in the passive tense,
indicating that he was the victim of a
power stronger than himself. He’s a
tree whose fruit fell too soon. His
accumulation of youth is spent (though
he doesn’t say that he spent it) yet he
does not have maturation either. He
saw the world (passive) yet nobody saw
him–also indicating possible
unfairness, like he was being blamed
for something that nobody witnessed.
The thread bit deals with the fates, but
could also deal with his fate for having
his thread cut when he did not spin it.
blending of opposites to show how things
are as they should not be
 Stanza 2 – notice that he changes now and
starts with the negative reflection on the
certainty of his death rather than all the facts
that suggest he is too young to die and will be a
wasted life. Pessimism taken over?
 Line 1 – ‘spring is past’ vs. ‘hath not sprung’
 Line 2 – ‘fruit is dead’ vs. ‘leaves be green’
 Line 3 – ‘youth is gone’ vs. ‘I am but young’
youth over vs. he’s still young.
Oxymoron because – youth can’t be over if
you’re still young (well, it can, but you see
how the idea is a bit contradictory).
 Line 4 – ‘I saw the world’ vs. ‘yet I was not
seen’
 Line 5 – ‘my thread is cut’ vs. ‘yet it is not spun’
Oxymoron because – if it hasn’t been made
how can it be cut?
 his youth is over vs. he’s not had a chance to enjoy his
youth.
Oxymoron because – how can spring be over and yet
you’ve not experienced spring?
 chance of demonstrating his fertility over; no more joy vs.
still young and healthy/fertile.
Oxymoron because – when trees are full of green
leaves they are also fertile. No fruit indicates a tree
that has shed its leaves for winter.
 youth over vs. he’s still young.
Oxymoron because – youth can’t be over if you’re
still young (well, it can, but you see how the idea is a
bit contradictory).
 Just about understanding how the world works vs. not had
a chance to make his mark on the world yet.
Oxymoron because – if you see the world, then
surely it sees you? Well, yes literally, but it does
make a fair amount of sense the way he phrases this
– he’s not had the chance to achieve anything or
leave the world with anything to remember him by.
 nice little metaphor for the journey of life, being woven
with your thread – the tapestry of life vs. the thread has
not even been spun into yarn and therefore the story of
his life cannot even have begun.
Second Stanza
 In the fifth line of both stanza one and two we get a
clear expression of misery and regret. ‘My life is fled’
and ‘My thread is cut’ are both definitive statements
that he doesn’t doubt at all, he is positive he will die
and has no hope whatsoever. However, he is filled with
depression when he says ‘yet I saw no sun’ and ‘yet it is
not spun’ as both of these suggest that he has not even
begun to have lived a full life or to have enjoyed
himself.
Analysis Stanza 3
 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,(plenty of time
reaming ) and now my glass is
run,(time has passed away)
 And now I live, and now my life
is done.
 Now he goes back to active
tense (I sought, I looked, I
trod, I die.) He found
death in birth, life in
ghosts, tombs in earth–
and yet, this voice, so
strong, so sure, couldn’t
this poem be a sort of
birth for him? This sort of
mental clarity that came
out like the moon on a
cloudy night
Final Stanza
 The first line says that he ‘found [his death] in my womb’,
which sounds very cryptic, but is actually a lovely expression
for his situation. He means that his birth as a Catholic is what
has condemned him to this fate as he had no other choice but
to plot against Elizabeth I. Now, that’s not strictly true, but
should be seen as a mark of his commitment to his faith, that
he felt he had to fight for it in this way. He also talks about
how his Catholicism made life seems like ‘it was a shade’.
Shade suggests something is covered in shadow or not at its
brightest, a bit cold and miserable, which could reflect the
fact he was never able to enjoy the privilege or opportunity
his life without Catholicism would have been able to have.
 Final stanza
 The last line is repeated in all three stanzas and
highlights the fact that his death is certain and yet he has
so much life yet to live.
 The third stanza is a bit more interesting.
 Now we are dealing with why he thinks he is in this
situation. He suggests that his death was an inevitable
consequence of being born a Catholic; when he tried to
live his life normally he says he ‘saw it was a shade’, which
implies that the restrictions on Catholic worship in
England and the disfavor of Catholic families meant that
he could never truly live in the full sun – have the
freedom and opportunities he would otherwise have
enjoyed without his faith
Interpretation
The only things to mention are the fact that each line
acts as two contradictory ideas to illustrate his
frustration between his youth and the fact he is
condemned, the repetition of the last line emphasising
his lack of hope and the switching around of positive
and negative portrayal of his life from the first stanza
to the second
Tichborne's Elegy ;Theme
• Focus on the despair of one who is about to be executed
• Dramatization of dance of life with death
• Revelation of profound contradictions implicit in
human condition
• Masterly use of metaphors and paradoxes
Theme
The main one here is obviously mortality and
Tichbourne’s struggle to deal with it and the regrets he
harbours over what he will never see, be or do.
However, there is also quite a strong religious theme as
he sees himself as dying for and because of his faith.