The Passionate Shepherd to His Love and The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd

"The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" by Christopher Marlowe is a "pastoral poem", that is, one that romanticizes the outdoor lifestyle of the shepherd. Sir Walter Raleigh wrote the poem  "The Nymph's Reply" in response of the Marlowe's poem. The two poems reveal a difference in the style of the two poets: Marlowe was the younger one, more passionate and idealistic. Meanwhile Raleigh is the older one, more experienced and realistic. It is evident that "The Nymph's Reply" is a rebuke of Raleigh for the juvenile ideas of Marlowe in his poem.

These poems are often used in schools because of their regular structure. "The Passionate Shepherd" is an example of a poem with a fixed rhythm and rhyme. While "The Nymph's Reply" mirrors the structure of "The Passionate Shepherd", but it reverses the images used in the earlier poem.

"Come live with me and be my love..." (Image courtesy of BridgemanArtOnDemand.Com)

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
by Christopher Marlowe
1599

Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields
Woods or steepy mountain yields

And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flower, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;

A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair lined slippers for the cold
With buckles of the purest gold;

A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs;
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me and be my love.

The shepherds' swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.

* * *

The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd
by Sir Walter Raleigh
1600

If all the world and love were young,
And truth in every shepherd's tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move
To live with thee and be thy love.

Time drives the flocks from field to fold,
When rivers rage and rocks grow cold;
And Philomel becometh dumb;
The rest complain of cares to come.

The flowers do fade, and wanton fields
To wayward winter reckoning yields;
A honey tongue, a heart of gall,
Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall.

Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy bed of roses,
Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies,
Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten,
In folly ripe, in reason rotten.

Thy belt of straw and ivy buds,
Thy coral clasps and amber studs,
All these in me no means can move
To come to thee and be thy love.

But could youth last and love still breed,
Had joys no date nor age no need,
Then these delights my mind might move
To live with thee and be thy love.