On Monsieur's Departure

It is written in the form of a meditation on the failure of her marriage negotiations with Francis, Duke of Anjou, but has also been attributed to her alleged affair with, and love of, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester.

Elizabeth I was unusually well-educated for a person of her time and wrote several poems, which seem to have been based on her life, in an era where courtly love was the European tradition.

"On Monsieur’s Departure" is a poem in which the persona has fallen victim to unrequited love.

My care is like my shadow in the sun --Follows me flying, flies when I pursue it,Stands, and lies by me, doth what I have done;His too familiar care doth make me rue it.No means I find to rid him from my breast,Till by the end of things it be suppressed.

Some gentler passion slide into my mind,For I am soft and made of melting snow;Or be more cruel, Love, and so be kind.Let me or float or sink, be high or low;Or let me live with some more sweet content,Or die, and so forget what love e'er meant.The poem consists of three sestet stanzas, each in iambic pentameter, with a rhyme scheme following the ABABCC pattern.

Elizabeth I (1533–1603), the supposed author of the poem
François, Duke of Alençon (1555–1584), a potential husband of Elizabeth, and perhaps the monsieur of the title