Written on a Window Frame at Woodstock

Poem by Elizabeth I.
Written during her time under house arrest at Woodstock 1554/55, poem dates 1555.
Engraved into the physical and material world around her, this illustrates her urgency and desperate condition.
1. Also displays her wanting to leave a lasting impression of her innocence.
2. Copied down later by another party, shows that publication was out of her control just as her fate was at the time.
Her martyrdom becomes a symbol of her innocence.
Reference made to the flight of her joy, her 'joy' is personified. This shows her complete and consuming misery.
At the end she makes a plea to God, but the rest of the poem avoids overtly religious rhetoric.
Image of Fortune displays her unfair treatment as something that is down to fate, not decided by herself or Mary and is unavoidable. Avoids blaming Mary.
"Causedst the guilty to be loosed from lands where innocents were enclosed"
"caused the guiltless to be reserved, and freed those that death had well deserved.

Resource summary

	Created by shanbutler over 8 years ago