NON-AFRICAN POETRY Comment on the poet's message to 'the court', 'Church', and Potentates in 'the soul's Errand".

Answer Details

"The Soul's Errand" (also known as "The Lie"), attributed to Sir Walter Raleigh, is a bitter valediction in which the dying soul is sent out as a messenger to expose the corruption of the world. To each institution the poet delivers a blunt accusation and dares it to "give the lie," that is, to prove him wrong at the cost of its own reputation.

To the Court. The soul is instructed to tell the court that "it glows and shines like rotten wood." The message is that the glittering world of kings, courtiers and royal favour is only a decayed brilliance, attractive on the surface but corrupt within. The court's splendour is a hollow show, and its influence, once tested honestly, cannot answer the charge.

To the Church. The soul must tell the church that "it shows what's good and doth no good." Here the poet's complaint is hypocrisy: the church preaches virtue and points to what is right, yet fails to practise or produce it. Its teaching and its conduct do not match; it is all doctrine and no deed.

To the Potentates (the great and powerful). The rulers and men of high estate are told that "they live acting by others' action," and are "not loved unless they give." The poet strips power of its dignity, showing that the mighty depend on flatterers and are esteemed only for the favours they dispense, not for any true worth.

The poet's message overall. Through these charges Raleigh voices a world-weary, almost Stoic disillusionment. Court, Church and rulers, the pillars of society, are unmasked as false, hypocritical and self-serving. The refrain "give the lie" is a challenge no institution can meet, and the soul's fearlessness comes precisely because, being about to leave the world, it has nothing more to lose and speaks pure truth.