Sir Walter Raleigh was born in Hayes Barton, England in 1552. Growing up, his family was well connected to the Royal Family of England. He grew up Protestant during the reign of Catholic Mary and faced prosecution, developing a hatred towards Catholicism. A favorite of Queen Elizabeth I, he was rewarded tremendously and served as an explorer for her. Things were going great until the Queen discovered a relationship between Raleigh and her female personal assistant, Elizabeth Throckmorton, who went by Bess. She was even more infuriated when she found out they had a child. As a form of punishment, she banished Raleigh, Bess, and their child to the Tower which was similar to a prison. The baby died shortly after due to the plague outbreak and Bess was released early, and eventually, Raleigh. In his time in the Tower, Raleigh wrote many poems including A Vision upon the Fairy Queen. 

Edmund Spenser was a close friend of Raleigh’s who also happened to be a poet. He too was a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I. Spenser involved Raleigh as a reader and writer of 2 commendatory sonnets in his book, The Faerie Queene. A commendatory verse is a poem that praises an author. The point of view of Raleigh’s commendatory verse, A Vision upon the Fairy Queen, is in first person and is a sonnet, consisting of 14 lines. In the first line, Raleigh sees the grave where a woman named Laura lies. After research, I discovered that Laura was a woman the poet Petrarch wrote many poems about. They shared no relationship since Laura was already married and had no interest in him. Petrarch was alive in the 14th century. Raleigh and Spenser, on the other hand, were alive in the 16th century. The poem is a sonnet, but not a Petrarchan poet which consists of two stanzas; one containing 8 lines with a rhyme scheme of ABBAABBA and six lines with a rhyme scheme of CDCDCD or CDECDE. Raleigh’s sonnet has a rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF and GG. The next line talks about a vestal flame, which is an allusion referring to Roman mythology. The Vestal Flame represents Vesta, the goddess of hearth and family. As long as the Vestal Flame burned, Rome would remain prosperous. The next line implies that the flame has gone out and after, there was a buried dust of living fame which could refer to Laura. I was unsure whether the buried dust of living fame referred to Petrarch or Laura but I assumed it was Laura because the next line says “Whose tomb fair Love, and fairer Virtue kept” and I noticed Raleigh mentioned a grave in the first line of the poem. I separated the first 5 lines and labeled them a chunk since it focused mainly on Laura- who Petrarch deemed, at one point, the most virtuous woman. I think the Vestal Flame adds to this opinion since it could symbolize Petrarch’s love for Laura. 
My next chunk was about the Fairy Queen mentioned in line 6-9. I believe this Fairy Queen refers to Queen Elizabeth I. Soon after Queen Elizabeth I approached, Petrarch began to weep. My inference on why Petrarch began to weep was because Queen Elizabeth I was most likely more virtuous and beautiful than his Laura. I think Queen Elizabeth represents fantasy and Laura represents reality. While this is a commendatory verse, I believe Raleigh is contributing to Spenser’s theme of virtue and human values in his The Faerie Queene. Supporting this interpretation it soon after says, “those Graces were not seen” and I think the capitalization of the G in graces refers to the capitalization of love and virtue in line 5. Since the Fairy Queen came, the virtues do not exist anymore. The message here is if we fail to value reality and dream of the unlikely and desirable, the values of reality decline. My next chunk was from lines 10 to 14 where the commendatory aspect is seen. Line 10 talks about how oblivion has laid him down next to Laura meaning that Petrarch has died next to Laura. Soon after it says the hardest stones were seen to bleed which emphasizes the importance of the death and how much Petrarch will be remembered. I think what Raleigh is trying to say is that although Petrarch was a great poet and will be remembered, he is surpassed by contemporary poets such as Spenser. I think Petrarch lost sight of reality which led to his downfall. But, I am still curious about the ending or last line of the poem where it says, “And cursed the access of that celestial thief”. I am not sure who the celestial thief is since it would not make sense for Raleigh to call Spenser a thief in a commendatory verse. So, this question still remains.

After reading “Halloween in the Anthropocene”, my understanding of global issues has increased. The speaker starts the poem with a simile, “Darkness spills across the sky like an oil plume”. By comparing the sky’s darkness to an oil plume, the speaker allows readers to visualize an oil spill dying the ocean black. This raises awareness about habitat loss and climate change. The speaker’s frustration is conveyed with negative connotation words such as “darkness”, “spills”, and “plume”. The word “plume” is key in this line as plume refers to a feather of a bird indicating that habitat loss hurts species both under and above the surface of the ocean. 

The speaker also addresses issues regarding social injustice such as child labor and physical suffering endured by people from all over the world. In lines 3 to 5 of the poem, the speaker talks about chattel slavery and although slavery is banned in other parts of the world, it still exists in Africa. According to the speaker, young boys are expected to work to produce cacao for large companies. In the context of the poem, I think this is referring to the production of Halloween chocolate. The next line involves a girl dressed up as a Disney princess trick or treating. I think the speaker is trying to convey a message of how a lot of us are unfamiliar with bigger issues in the world. Life might be simple for us, but for people, especially the young boys in Africa, it is extremely difficult to haul heavy things in the unbearable heat. It’s so easy for us to go to a grocery store and purchase a bag of chocolate, but we lack the knowledge of how this is produced: unethically. We enjoy things at the expense of others. Continuing this idea of Halloween, the speaker begins to talk about the production of Halloween costumes. In lines 8-10, the speaker talks about praising the young brown girls who sew our clothes as fire unthreads sweatshops into charred flesh. I think this calls more attention to the reality of sweatshops. Sweatshops usually consist of poor working conditions and low pay. As the poem shows, sometimes working here can get bloody and dangerous. Through this, the speaker is expanding on the idea that we enjoy and get things so easily by swiping a card at the expense of children exposed to a life-threatening environment. The speaker continues this idea of child labor and fast fashion in the next lines where they talk about Asian teens who assemble toys and tech in more poor working conditions. I know that fash fashion chains such as SHEIN, Zara, and Primark employ young individuals to produce products for them for unreasonable pay. Again, this enforces the idea of the negative reality of child labor.

The speaker continues to raise awareness among other minority groups such as native Americans. In lines 16 to 19, the speaker says, “Tonight, let us praise the souls of native youth, whose eyes are open-pit uranium mines, veins are poisoned rivers, hearts are tar sands tailing ponds”. I think by talking about a uranium mine, the author is connecting the idea of Native Americans and their interaction with the environment to resource extraction. Native Americans are very close to nature and because of recent uranium extraction in proximity to native land, Native Americans suffer from this directly. When talking about “veins are poisoned rivers”, I believe the speaker is referring to the contamination of rivers from runoff and other chemicals. Water is commonly used for drinking, bathing, and cooking, and if this water is contaminated, that poses a major threat to the health of people who use this water. In the next lines, the speaker talks about women. Even though women are not considered a minority group, they are a disadvantaged group. He begins to bring up mothers of cancer, violence, extinction, miscarriage, and cheap nature. These mothers could refer to any group but I think this term was used especially for Native American women. These women might have had cancer because of the radiation from the uranium, experienced gradual violence from environmental degradation and exposure to toxic substances, miscarriages because of their poor health, and being exploited for their land. By using repetition and repeating “pray for us”, the speaker calls attention to raising efforts to stop this injustice. 

In Craig Santos Perez’s “Love in a Time of Climate Change”, Perez emphasizes his love through the use of similes and environmental references. There is a recurring idea of climate change and how as our society progresses, we are approaching our doom.

Analyzing the first stanza of Perez’s poem, I notice that Perez compares his love to things that possess more meaning rather than worldly desires that spark conflict such as “rare earth metals, conflict diamonds, or reserves of crude oil”. I think these words have a negative connotation since they give off a meaning of robbery and jealousy and it reminds me of current events going on today such as the increased usage of nonrenewable resources and oil crises occurring in the Middle East. By saying, “I love you as one loves the most vulnerable species: urgently, between the habitat and its loss” in lines 3 and 4, Perez expresses urgency in his love. I think Perez uses the word “urgently” in this scenario because although some people hold the belief that climate change is “nonexistent” or “gradual”, it had unraveled before our eyes quicker than we imagined. Polar bears, seals, penguins, and other arctic animals have lost their homes because of the hurried melting process experienced by the glaciers causing ice sheets to break apart and drift off into the ocean. Perez’s comparison to endangered species and habitat loss illustrates the healthiness and urgency of his love.

Beginning the second stanza with another simile, Perez, this time, compares love to something sacred and rare. Using the words, “as one loves the last seed saved within a vault” in lines 5 and 6, Perez shows that his love is so strong and can lead to attachment for someone so unique and special. Continuing in the same line he says, “gestating the heritage of our roots” which when put together with the beginning of the stanza contributes to the poem’s meaning of climate change and how as climate change leads to more intense and destructive weather, we are slowly losing our proof of existence and that last seed is what we have left of us. This reminds me of Hurricane Helene’s impact on Asheville where people’s homes and businesses were wiped out almost as if no one settled there. For the rest of the stanza, Perez says that because of the effects from the intended recipient of the poem, even though times may seem tough, he can still find solace in them highlighting his love for them. 

The third stanza furthers the idea of the lasting impacts of climate change because Perez writes how he loves the intended recipient as if the world was going to end at any given moment because of how catastrophic climate change is. To say, “I love you organically, without pesticides” Perez conveys his true, pure love to the recipient, and by ending this stanza with enjambment leaving the last word at “survive”, it makes readers question what will come next, building suspense as to whether they will survive because of the intensity of climate change. The fourth stanza elaborates on global warming with the use of the phrases, “nitrogen rich compost”, “emissions of carbon”, and “sea rises”. Nitrogen-rich compost contributes to global warming since it releases nitrous oxide which depletes the ozone more rapidly than the carbon dioxide and carbon we emit. The rising sea levels tie back to the idea of habitat loss and rising temperatures. These elements of climate change contribute to the work’s overall meaning of the extent of Perez’s love for the designated reader despite the hardships and adversities happening around them and how these conflicts rather than weakening his love magnify it as he appreciates what he has left.

Craig Santos Perez is a native Chamoru (Chamorro) from the Pacific Island of Guåhan/Guam. He is the co-founder of Ala Press, co-star of the poetry album Undercurrent (Hawai’i Dub Machine, 2011), and author of three collections of poetry: from unincorporated territory [hacha] (Tinfish Press, 2008), from unincorporated territory [saina](Omnidawn, 2010), and from unincorporated territory [guma’] (Omnidawn, 2014). He has been a finalist for the LA Times 2010 Book Prize for Poetry and the winner of the 2011 PEN Center USA Literary Award for Poetry.

He is director of the Creative Writing program and an assistant professor of English at the University of Hawai’i, Manoa, where he teaches Pacific literature and creative writing. He maintains his own blog, and has blogged for Harriet.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/craig-santos-perez

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