"Raleigh Was Right" is a poem by William Carlos Williams, published in 1940 and composed in response to the Elizabethan exchange between Christopher Marlowe, in "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love", and Walter Raleigh, with "The Nymph's Reply".
Horton Foote's Roots in a Parched Ground, the opening play of The Orphans' Home Cycle, takes its title from a line in this poem.
Text
Raleigh was right
We cannot go to the country
for the country will bring us
no peace
What can the small violets
tell us that grow on furry stems
in the long grass among
lance-shaped leaves?
Though you praise us
and call to mind the poets
who sung of our loveliness it was
long ago! long ago! when country people would plow and sow with flowering minds and pockets at ease—if ever this were true.
Not now. Love itself a flower
with roots in a parched ground. Empty pockets make empty heads. Cure it if you can but do not believe that we can live today in the country for the country will bring us no peace.
