Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) was the daughter of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. The king accused his wife of adultery in 1534 and insisted that Elizabeth was a bastard child. Elizabeth, however, replaced Mary Tudor and became the queen of England in 1558. Her reign was long and peaceful, despite attempts on her life and criticisms about a woman’s right to rule. As a youth, she translated several important works, and as queen she wrote well-crafted speeches and letters. Although Spenser and Shakespeare represented her as a “fairy queen,” she herself desired to maintain the image of one who had the “heart and stomach of a king.”

The following poem (whose attribution to Queen Elizabeth has been questioned) was published in the book The Norton Anthology of Poetry: Fourth Edition (edited by Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, and Jon Stallworthy; published by W. W. Norton & Company in 1996). After each stanza of the poem (in bold), I have included my paraphrase.

When I Was Fair and Young

When I was fair and young, then favor graced me.
Of many was I sought their mistress for to be,
But I did scorn them all and answered them therefore:
Go, go, go, seek some other where, importune me no more.

[When I was young and beautiful, I was in favor with men. Many asked me to be their sweetheart, but I rejected them all and answered them in this way: Go away and look somewhere else. Don’t annoy me with your begging anymore.]

How many weeping eyes I made to pine in woe,
How many sighing hearts I have not skill to show,
But I the prouder grew and still this spake therefore:
Go, go, go, seek some other where, importune me no more.

[I don’t know how many men I made to weep and sigh in distress, but I became prouder, and I continued to say to them: Go away and look somewhere else. Don’t annoy me with your begging anymore.]

Then spake fair Venus’ son, that proud victorious boy,
Saying: You dainty dame, for that you be so coy,
I will so pluck your plumes as you shall say no more:
Go, go, go, seek some other where, importune me no more.

[Then Venus’ son (Cupid, the god of love), that proud boy who conquers hearts with love, said, “You delicate lady, since you pretend to be so shy, I will pull out your peacock feathers (those symbols of beauty and pride), so that you will no longer say: Go away and look somewhere else. Don’t annoy me with your begging anymore.”]

As soon as he had said, such change grew in my breast
That neither night nor day I could take any rest.
Wherefore I did repent that I had said before:
Go, go, go, seek some other where, importune me no more.

[As soon as he had said this, my heart changed, and I could not sleep, either night or day, and I felt very sorry that I had said before: Go away and look somewhere else. Don’t annoy me with your begging anymore.]