Elizabeth and Leicester

We are taken back in time to the Thames of the 16th Century: Queen Elizabeth I and her favourite courtier Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester enjoy a cruise on a luxurious barge.
The peal of bells /White towers are in contrast to the modern river, which sweats / Oil and tar.

Eliot's Notes refer to an incident on the barge when Leicester raised the possibility of his marriage to the queen. Elizabeth never married Leicester or anybody else, perhaps judging that to do so would be to surrender her power. Compare the theme of Wagner's Ring, which is about the sacrifice of love for power. Elizabeth is a powerful woman, in contrast to the Thames-daughters.

Back to poem