"The Lie" by Sir Walter Raleigh (poetry reading)

Sir Walter wrote this poem while incarcerated in the Tower of London waiting to be executed. The final picture is of his cell, the chair and desk at which he sat and wrote this poem. He was by then the most dangerous of men, the desperado, the berserker, the warrior who considers himself already dead. He could tell them the truth because he has nothing to lose. You can read his last words on the scaffold here: http://www.bartleby.com/268/3/6.html He asked to see the axe that was to cut his head off and remarked, "This is a sharp Medicine, but it is a Physician for all Diseases." His wife kept his head with her at all times until she died 29 years later. Here's his last letter to his wife: http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/dust/dust.html The men who "manage the estate" refers to those that run the country. "Niceness" meant triviality, something not worth bothering about - and it still does in expressions such as "a nice distinction" meaning a difference that's hard to see. Has anything changed? Has the world gained more insight since then, become wiser? No, it still lives the lie.