“the Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd”

The poem "Clocks and Lovers" by W. H. Auden’s contrasts the idea of whether or not love will outlast time. Initially, the poem portrays a lover affirming the belief that love will triumph over time. The poem transitions and depicts the clocks' argument that due to time, love will eventually fade away. The narrator contrasts the two arguments with usage of imagery, personification, tone and diction. The argument that love will prevail over time is contrasted by the belief that as time goes by, time can never be stopped and love will not last. Overall, neither belief is represented as correct because the narrator contrasts the two opposing arguments by displaying that two arguments are incompatible. In regards to their following arguments, time is not as malicious or arduous to love but love is not impervious to time.

A slightly different approach to a proclamation of love is conveyed in the third poem,  by Christopher Marlowe.  He,  despite having the same aim as the poet in the first poem,  seeks a far more realistic approach,  and seems to try to win his loves over by being truthful and presenting her with the truth.  However he does this in such a manner,  that the poem seems to contain a touch of sarcasm in it.

In the romantic era, British authors and poets focused on nature and its influence. Two of those poets, Charlotte Smith and William Wordsworth, wrote many pieces on the beauty of nature and their personal experiences with the beaches of England. In “Far on the sands” and “It is a beauteous evening,” Smith and Wordsworth describe their respective experiences on the shore at sunset. Both authors use structure, theme, allusions, and imagery to effectively convey their perceptions of nature. While the sonnets share a setting and the topics of nature and tranquility, Smith’s has a focus on introspection and Wordsworth’s is centered around religion. These have different focuses which achieve different effects on the reader.

Often, the history behind love stories has two -if not more- sides. Both sides of this story can be seen in W.H. Auden’s poem Clocks and Lovers, in which each side has a different attitude. The attitudes of the clocks differs greatly from that of the lover, with opposite points of view. Both attitudes relate to separate groups of people and are shown simply through analysis of the poem, because the poet uses literary devices to emphasize both perspectives. While the lover overzealously believes his love can transcend time, the clocks counter by stating that time’s relentlessness erodes all.

With a few exceptions, the poem primarily follows the form of accentual-syllabic verse. The majority of lines are composed of three syllables, most often two unstressed and one stressed. Using a combination of structural technique and descriptive language, Williams emphasizes the action of visual perception.

The styles of the poets also differ, Christopher Marlowe using simple and understandable language while Andrew Marvel uses formal complicated language. Therefore the styles of the poems differ also.

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.

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.

In a conversation poem titled “Frost at Midnight,” romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge creates a persona of himself who spends the duration of the poem having a one-sided conversation with his newly born baby. The narrator laments his own childhood, but finds solace in knowing that his baby has potential for a better life than he, since the baby will have a nature-centered upbringing. The narrator contrasts constricted and expansive imagery, enumerated and enjambed sentences, and alienated and familiar diction to underline the differences between his own childhood education, which was spent studying books, and the childhood education he hopes his baby will have. The narrator suggests that nature will offer his baby a childhood education superior to his own because nature will teach the baby to be one with the world, allowing him to feel peace and serenity no matter the circumstances.

The poem is separated into two parts, each with sixteen lines, and is loosely based on an iambic pentameter metre. The rhyme scheme is ABAB throughout the poem, with the noticeable exception of the last four lines of part II, in which it changes to

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.

The author uses a rhyme scheme that mirrors the pace of walking. The pace is moderate using an octameter meter, and each stressed syllable is like each footfall of the narrator. As he walks through the streets near the River Thames, he notices the common distress in the faces of the people he passes along the way. The author uses alliteration in

The passionate Shepherd to his love is a pastoral poem that focuses on the Shepherd who tries to win the love of his crush ( the Nymph ) by telling her of all the joys and pleasures of nature, the Shepherd also tries to win the Nymph’s love by offering her materialistic items. The Shepherd tells the Nymph that if she comes to be with him then he will do all these wonderful things in nature with her like: “we will sit upon the rocks, seeing Shepherds feed their flocks,”( line 6) “and I will make thee bed of roses. And a thousand fragrant roses.”( line 9) Along with offering the Nymph a bunch of things from nature he also offers her a bunch of materialistic items such as a buckle made of gold,( line sixteen) and a gown made of wool.(line thirteen) The Nymphs turned down the Shepherd’s love, because she says that the items that the Shepherd is offering to her have no long-lasting value. Because all the things that the Shepherd offers to the Nymph are not long lasting their love will not be long lasting either; all of the Shepherds offerings are things in nature that do not have long-lasting value to them; so the Nphm believes that their love will be no different.

The Structure, style and poetic techniques of a poem contribute greatly to the development of the central idea of a poem. Three poems with central ideas that stood out to me were ‘The Darkling Thrush’ by Thomas Hardy, ‘Days’ by Philip Larkin, and ‘Remembrance’ by Emily Brontë. The central idea of each of these poems revolve around the idea of time and change. Firstly, I will discuss how in ‘The Darkling Thrush’ the simple and traditional structure, the bleak yet straightforward style and techniques such as vivid imagery and capitalisation combine to develop the central idea of change. The same can be said for the simple structure and style used in ‘Days’ which combine with poetic techniques such as metaphors to develop Larkin’s argument against time and change. Finally I will discuss how the idea of time is developed through techniques such as vivid imagery and symbolism in ‘Remembrance’ along with changing styles and a slow, consistent rhythm.