“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
Marlowe’s poem speaks of praises and lavish gifts for his love in an attempt to capture her attention and admiration. The narrator speaks of the life they will live together in harmony with nature and with one another. Donne’s poem seems to be a warning to the narrator instead of Raleigh’s poem which is a response to the narrator’s request from a young lady.
In the first stage of the poem, Morgan uses various poetic techniques to set the scene in the early evening by a Scottish loch. “The evening is perfect, my sisters. The loch lies silent, the air is still. The suns last rays linger over the water.” Morgan’s use of effective word choice creates a sense of peaceful tranquillity which is further developed with the alliteration
Next, the speaker in "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" is a young shepherd who proposes a passionate love affair to the girl he desires. He uses nature largely to appeal to her senses. He tells her they will sit and watch the other shepherds work and listen to the birds sing. This implies that they will have a life of pleasure and relaxation. He says he “will make beds of roses and give her fragrant posies” (Marlowe 1). He promises to outfit her in fine clothes and that she will not want for anything. He uses all these tempting things to help his
A Comparison of 'The Passionate Shepherd to his Love' and 'The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd'
Debora B. Schwartz in her article, "Pastoral Poetry and Pastoral Comedy" highlights the fact that the major themes which are typically discussed in pastoral poetry include: "love and seduction;… the corruption of the city or court vs. the ‘purity’ of idealized country life…" (par. 2). In the poem, "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love," the theme of the "'purity' of idealized country life" is explored when the male persona attempts to use words which conjure up images of an paradise which he and his love interest can escape to sexually gratify each other. The male persona entices his love interest to "come live" with him and be his love (l. 1). He desires that he and his lover's "prove" the various "pleasures" that "woods or steepy mountain yields" (ll. 2, 4). This argument is rebuffed by the female persona in the poem, "The Nymph's Reply to Her Husband," when she states the following: "Time drives the flocks from field to fold, /When rivers rage and rocks grow cold" (ll. 5-6). It should be noted that these lines reflect the following lines of Marlowe's poem: "And we will sit upon the rocks, / seeing the shepherds feed their flocks/ by shallow rivers…" (ll. 5-7). The female persona undermines the shepherd's idealization of the countryside and pastoral life since the passage of time, depicted by the seasons, will change the characteristics of these things described so positively by the male persona in Marlowe's poem.
Marlowe’s perspective on nature is a rather positive one, and with the use of imagery and structure he explains to the reader why his perspective is so. This can be seen when Marlowe states “And we will sit upon the rocks, Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks, By shallow rivers to whose falls Melodious birds sing madrigals.” In the stanza that has been presented, Marlowe uses very delicate examples of nature to persuade the reader that nature can provide for humanity, as the examples make it seem as so. In addition Marlowe also uses a very calming rhyme scheme to support his perspective. He uses this to persuade the reader that that is what nature is, very calm and delicate. The use of rhyme scheme also allows for a very nice flow throughout the poem, giving the readers a more enjoyable experience when reading. With the use of both imagery and structure, Marlowe is easily able to support his perspective upon nature.
said to her was true she would live with him and be his love. However
Pastoral poetry is a lyric poem that idealizes nature while criticizing urban life.These two pastoral poems are example of the contrast between the easygoing countryside and the hustle bustle of a city. In the famous pastoral poetry, “The Passionate Shepherd to his love,” the Shepherd happily describes the beautiful natural image of a perfect life. He wholeheartedly believes that love is always joyful and nothing can ruin the serenity. This poem is criticized for its deluded perspective by the Nymph in a taunting way. She mocks his fantasy life that has everlasting flowers, melodious birds and finest wool gown. The Nymph’s view on her ideal love is infinite, nonmaterialistic and realistic which contradicts the Shepherd’s view on ideal love—youthful, acquisitive, and blinding; these incompatible views tear a relationship into pieces especially when the problem is addressed in a cynical tone.
A critical analysis of “Merciles Beautee” as compared with “To Rosemounde, Hale sterne superne, hale in eterne and Of my lady wel me rejoise I may.”
Robert Herrick was a 17th century poet, born and raised in England, a huge focus in his poetry was his Christian faith. A common theme among all Herrick’s poetry is that life is fleeting so to find the beauty in the world and fall in love. A popular work of Herrick’s, “The Vine,” follows a man that dreams of himself as a vine and sexualizes a woman, Lucia. In “The Vine,” Herrick utilizes allusion and diction to demonstrate the theme of perversion.
Ralegh conveys this somber realization through his plain style of verse. Though he describes the mistress in detail, she is not the subject of his poem. Ralegh uses Love’s mistress and her destruction as a vehicle to address the destructive nature of Time. He approaches that subject in the plain style, using short, proverbial phrases intended to make the reader aware of time and mutability. The poem contains several lines that are made entirely of one-syllable words, which draw out the time it takes to read the line. Contrast lines 31-32 in “Nature, that washed her hands in milk” with lines 8 and 10 in Christopher Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” (p. 989). Marlowe describes the land in which he lives, where “Melodious birds sing madrigals,” and beds are made of “a thousand fragrant posies”. Marlowe’s verse sounds quick and light when spoken, simply because he uses fewer words in an eight-syllable line. Ralegh, in contrast, often uses seven or eight words to fill the same eight-syllable line: “Oh, cruel Time! which takes in trust/Our youth, our joys, and all we have…” Line 32 especially requires that the reader take more time to pronounce each syllable, which adds weight to each word.
In my perspective, I’m going to be concentrating on the two poems The Passionate Shepherd to His Love and The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd differences and similarities on a few things: Love, Nature, Time, and the Material World. What I've seen is that the two poems are complete polar opposites and offset each other. The Shepherd is a perfect dream where nothing ends or love dies. The Nymph is striking back at him with reality and with doubt about what the Shepherd is telling her.
The passionate shepherd to His love poem is a poem that portrays the basic romanticizing of the country living which describes the nature of the environments and is very sentimental. Christopher’s poem is showing the best fantasy of ordinary romance that would be much better felt in the countryside other than the urban side of the country. Nature is of the essence. The nymph's reply to the shepherd Poem, on the other hand, is based on how he perceives the passionate shepherds to his love. Sir Walter has a different perception of the nature romantics; he presents a contrast in his poem. Christopher Marlowe and Sir Walter Raleigh are having a dialogue which is contradictory dialogue.
The Passionate Shepherd To His Love; by Christopher Marlowe and The Nymph’s Reply To The Shepherd by: Sir. Walter Raleigh. The purpose of this writing is to compare and contrast the two speakers point of view in the poem. I will also be discussing the four major themes of the: Passionate Shepherd To His Love and The Nymph's reply To The Shepherd, such as nature, love, material world, and time. I will be using evidence and lines from the two pastoral poems to help support my answers.
Society’s perception of love changes constantly. As a result, poems of different time periods have different perceptions of love and beauty. Ben Jonson’s “A Vision of Beauty” and Samuel Daniel’s “But love whilst that thou mayst be loved again” reflect the importance of physical beauty in love during the Renaissance Era. In the Victorian Period, Wilfrid Scawen Blunt’s “I See You Juliet” and Robert Browning’s “A Face” continue to reflect society’s fascination with female beauty in both a positive and negative way. In the Modern Period, a shift occurs in both marriage and love with a greater emphasis on true love and inner beauty. William Butler Yeats’ “When You Are Old” and Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Only Until This Cigarette Is Ended” show