But from this earth, this grave, this dust, My God shall raise me up, I trust.

These lines are commonly attributed to Sir Walter Raleigh in connection with his imprisonment in the Tower of London and his meditations on death and salvation in the years leading up to his execution (1618). They circulate as a brief, devotional couplet expressing confidence in bodily resurrection—language that fits the Protestant consolatory verse often written or copied in confinement. However, the couplet is frequently quoted in isolation in later anthologies and quotation collections, and it is not consistently tied to a single, securely identified document or first printing in Raleigh’s lifetime.

The couplet compresses a Christian ars moriendi (art of dying) into two balanced lines: the speaker acknowledges the body’s reduction to “earth…grave…dust,” yet counters that finality with trust in divine restoration. The movement from physical decay to spiritual confidence turns mortality into a test of faith. In the context of a condemned or imprisoned voice, it also reads as defiance of worldly judgment: human authorities can kill the body, but cannot prevent God’s ultimate vindication. Its plain diction and steady rhyme underscore calm assurance rather than despair.