is speaking to Wisdom, rather than Philosophy, and the
subject matter of the verses often deals directly with the
greatness of God. At the same time, Alfred sometimes
calls upon the traditions of Germanic heroic poetry,
such as when he replaces Boethius’s discussion of the
Roman politician Fabricius with a reference to Weland,
a fi gure from Germanic mythology. Alfred seems to be
at his best when he departs from Boethius. The fi rst of
the Meters, for example, represents his attempt to place
Boethius and his work into a historical context. In it,
Alfred recounts the sack of Rome by the Goths, using
the language of Anglo-Saxon heroic narratives.
FURTHER READING
Krapp, George Philip. The Paris Psalter and the Meters of
Boethius. New York: Columbia University Press, 1932.
Monnin, Pierre Eric. “Poetic Improvements in the Old
English Meters of Boethius.” English Studies 60 (1979):
346–360.
William H. Smith
“METHOUGHT I SAW THE GRAVE,
WHERE LAURA LAY” (“A VISION UPON
THE CONCEIPT OF THE FAERY
QUEENE”) SIR WALTER RALEIGH (ca. 1589)
When EDMUND SPENSER’s great EPIC poem, The FAERIE
QUEENE, fi rst appeared in print in 1590, seven short
commendatory poems followed at the end. The adven-
turer, courtier, soldier, and poet SIR WALTER RALEIGH
wrote the fi rst two of these poems, which praise
Spenser and his literary achievement. The fi rst one,
beginning “Methought I saw the grave, where Laura
lay,” is considered by many critics to be among the
best lyric poems of the Elizabethan era, particularly
due to its vividly dramatic content, Raleigh’s accom-
plished use of the fashionable SONNET form, and the
relationship it suggests between his poem and Spens-
er’s epic on which it comments, as well as between the
two authors themselves. To encounter such a memo-
rable poem is unusual in this context; commendatory
verses were typically artless “blurbs” by like-minded
poets or acquaintances who hoped to benefi t from a
little fl attery.
The position of all seven poems is also unusual:
Often preceding the main work to act as a preview or
even advertisement, the verse commendations in the
case of The Faerie Queene become a kind of epilogue.
This placement may simply refl ect their late arrival at
the printer, or they may have been consciously
intended to create an impression-forming, sympathetic
fi rst reception of Spenser’s ambitious poem. In this
context, Raleigh offers in his sonnet the fi rst literary
criticism on Spenser’s epic.
“Methought I saw” is specifi cally an ENGLISH SONNET,
with its three quatrains followed by a concluding COU-
PLET. The speaker begins by describing a vision he or
she has received of the grave of Laura, the idealized,
unobtainable subject of PETRARCH’s poems. Whereas the
real Laura purportedly died in Avignon, Raleigh imag-
ines her grave within the Temple of Vesta, in the Roman
Forum (ll. 1–3). The fi rst quatrain ends with a state-
ment of purpose: The speaker has passed by her grave
to see “that buried dust of living fame” (l. 4). The moti-
vation initially seems positive: Petrarch has immortal-
ized Laura in his poetry, despite her physical death. Yet
the very presence of Laura’s “dust” compromises that
fame: Petrarch ultimately can commemorate, but not
save, her. The “buried” dust refers to Laura entombed,
but more fi guratively it foreshadows the death of her
“living fame,” subtly personifi ed here. Raleigh also per-
sonifi es “faire love” and “fairer vertue” (l. 5). These
“graces” maintain Laura’s grave, even as vestal virgins
once kept the sacred fi re of Rome continuously lit in
Vesta’s temple. The climax of the narration occurs next:
“All suddeinly I saw the Faery Queene” (l. 6). This rev-
elation constitutes the central action of Raleigh’s vision.
The sonnet’s formal title is “A Vision upon the Con-
ceipt of the Faery Queene.” For years, Raleigh’s editors
did not preserve the title’s italics, but this change
causes a signifi cant shift in emphasis. The original title
clearly speaks of Spenser’s epic poem, though in
Raleigh’s sonnet itself the phrase appears without ital-
ics, suggesting instead the character the Faerie Queene.
Spenser further complicates the matter in a “Letter to
Raleigh,” printed just before the sonnet. There he
explains how the character of the Faery Queene repre-
sents glory generally and Queen ELIZABETH I in particu-
lar. In this way Spenser honors by imitation Raleigh’s
court poetry, which allowed for effusive praise of the
queen. Raleigh, in turn, employs these multiple identi-268 “METHOUGHT I SAW THE GRAVE, WHERE LAURA LAY”