Sir Walter Ralegh. On the Cards and Dice.

ON THE CARDS AND DICE.¹

EFORE the sixth day of the next new
year,
Strange wonders in this kingdom shall appear:
Four kings shall be assembled in this isle,
Where they shall keep great tumult for awhile.
Many men then shall have an end of crosses,
And many likewise shall sustain great losses;
Many that now full joyful are and glad,
Shall at that time be sorrowful and sad;
Full many a Christian's heart shall quake for fear,
The dreadful sound of trump when he shall hear.
Dead bones shall then be tumbled up and down,
In every city and in every town.
By day or night this tumult shall not cease,
Until an herald shall proclaim a peace;
An herald strong, the like was never born,
Whose very beard is flesh and mouth is horn.

¹ MS. Malone 19, p.45. Also ascribed to Raleigh in the
Catalogue of Oxford MSS. among those of c. c. c.

Source:
Hannah, J., Ed. The Poems of Sir Walter Raleigh.
London: George Bell and Sons, 1891. 19.

to the Works of Sir Walter Ralegh