To fully appreciate this poem, it should be read in conjunction with Christopher Marlowe's poem, "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love," which can be found in Christopher Marlowe: The Complete Poems , edited by Mark Thornton Burnett and published by Tuttle Publishing in 2001.

One of Raleigh's most famous poems is "A Vision upon the Conceit of the Faerie Queene." It is his response to the book-length poem, "The Faerie Queene," by his friend and protégé Edmund Spenser.

John Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn" is one of the greatest poems from the romantic period, two hundred years after this poem was written. It addresses the same themes Raleigh addressed, looking with sorrow at the youthful figures painted on the urn of the title, who can enjoy their youth forever. It is in most standard poetry anthologies, as well...