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The Passionate Shepherd To His Love By Christopher Marlowe And The Nymph's Reply To The Shepherd

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“The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” by Christopher Marlowe and “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” by Sir Walter Raleigh are two of numerous, prominent poems in the late sixteenth century. Both were written between 1590 and 1600, however, the exact years for each are somewhat ambiguous. Raleigh’s “The Passionate Shepherd . . . ” is classified as a pastoral poem due to its depiction of a natural setting and is also considered to be perhaps the most famous of all English pastoral works. Likewise, it is a carpe diem poem given its advocation to “seize the day” and to “live life to the fullest extent”—which often implied care-free, sexual behaviors. Conversely, there exists many sequels to it, the most relevant being Marlowe’s “The Nymph’s Reply . . . “ Marlowe’s speaker claims that the recipient should live with him so that they may pursue a variety of romantic activities. However, Raleigh’s speaker is significantly less optimistic and states that nothing is eternal, all shall succumb to aging, and that they would only live with him if life had no boundaries of time. Furthermore, Marlowe’s poem is a quintessential carpe diem poem given how the speaker attempts to portray the extravagant and romantic lifestyle that could be provided for the recipient. Similarly, the first and last lines of the second stanza state, respectively, “And we will sit upon the rocks . . . Melodious birds sing madrigals.” This evokes vivid imagery due to the audio and visual cues painted by the

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