The Passionate Shepherd to His Love Analysis

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love Analysis Love is not quick Is ones eager love and admiration enough to last forever? So Marlowes Passionate Shepherd To His Love would think so. On the other hand, Raleighs Nymph Reply To The Shepherd would confidently disagree, as she does not believes his hasty words. Marlowe writes a naive, rash, and rather bold poem which attempts to confess his feelings and paints a picture of what love could be. He fills the canvas with dream like scenery and promising words of materialistic items to win ones affection. Raleighs response in Nymph prompts the reader to see reasoning and a sense of reality that contrasts with Marlowes words of the Shepherd. In Passionate Shepherd To His Love, Marlowes style for the poem is pastoral. He seems to glorify the simplicity of life and idealize a perfect world by utilizing nature to create his utopian scene. In the lines And we will sit upon the rocks, Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,(Marlowe 777) he portrays an innocent notion of affection by simply admiring other shepherds feeding sheep alongside his love. The authors soft-spoken line,By shallow rivers, to whose falls Melodious birds sing madrigals,(Marlowe 777) illustrates spending time by the river with waterfalls as birds sing melodies. These are one of many naive illusions the shepherd attempts to charm his love with. Marlowes shepherd is filled with nothing but eager promises that are not realistic. The shepherd seeks love, yet is first confined to proving his worth. In beginning, Marlow speaks of practical promises such as, A cap of flowers and kirtle Embroidered all with leave of myrtle; A gown made of the finest wool Which from our pretty lambs we pull (Marlowe 777). The pastoral style and the earthy feeling of nature are still visible when he speaks of flowers being made caps and skirts made of leaves. His practical promises quickly shift into unattainable ones as he begins to sound desperate as he states, A belt of straw and ivy buds, With Coral clasp and amber studs (Marlowe 777) The work of a shepherd cannot gather such raw items, as they are both too costly for him and also rare in the countryside. The poem is filled with open-ended promises where, in a perfect world, it would be enough to win the affection someones love. In the Nymphs Reply to the Shepherd, Raleigh is straightforward when addressing the shepherd. He uses the words and stanzas in a ruthless way, utilizing them in such a manner of deliberation and precision, that it sets the tone of a distinct response to Marlowe. The feminine persona of the nymph sets up hypothetical questions that disregard mans impulses of transitory promises. Raleigh begins by speaking of a naive world with a skeptical shepherd and his kind gestures that may win the affection of the nymph. Similar to Marlowe, who incorporates nature in his writing, Raleigh exploits the idea of the outdoors by expressing flawless responses. In the first example, Time drives the flocks from field to fold, When Rivers rage and Rocks grow cold(Raleigh 782). Raleigh puts an end to the simple gazing of flocking sheep, as its time for them to be put away, and the rocks growing cold insist a change in weather. In line 6, the stressed emphasis of R and its combined clashing sound supports the harsh distinction of Raleighs nature. Rather than Marlowes safe and consistent shallow stream, Raleigh illustrates a raging river that can be dangerous and destructive. The overall idea expressed in line 5 and 6 is that small moments dont last forever and making quick-hearted decisions will eventually lead to a negative outcome. As both authors integrate nature in their pieces, the differences in season describe a general feeling to each poem. Marlowe speaks of beautiful valleys, hills, groves, beds of roses, and alluring mountainsides, therefore the reader can assume the season as spring. Raleigh, however, expresses practicality, using winter to illustrate that, just as spring, love is not always everlasting.   He depicts this in Lines 9 and 10, The flowers do fade, and wanton fields, To wayward winter reckoning yields(Raliegh 782). The over all message that Raleigh is trying to convey can be expressed with in two lines, A honey tongue, a heart of gall, Is fancys spring, but sorrows fall,(782) he stating that if someones only chooses to see the short pleasure of love, over a long-term commitment, it will only lead in unhappiness. Marlowes theme suggests carpe diem, or to seize the day, as Raleigh exercises both carpe diem and tempus fugit, to seize the time. A better explanation of this is better expressed by Dr. Bruce Magee who explains that, Normally we should seize the day because time flies. Raleigh argues that because time flies, we should NOT seize the day.(Magee) This is a concurring statement because instead of making impulsive decisions in life, one should wait to evaluate possible outcomes before determining a significant choice. As Shakespeare once said, Wisely and slow. They stumble that run fast (Shakespeare 4). Work Cited Kirszner, Laurie G., and Stephen R. Mandell. Portable literature: reading, reacting, writing. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning, 2016. Print. Magee, Bruce. The Passionate Shepherd to His Love (and the Nymphs Reply). The Passionate Shepherd to His Love (and the Nymphs Reply). Louisiana Tech University, 08 Aug. 2014. Web. 27 Feb. 2017. Wiegle, Matt, and William Shakespeare. No fear Shakespeare. New York: Sparknotes, 2008. Print. The Passionate Shepherd To His Love Analysis The Passionate Shepherd To His Love Analysis The passionate shepherd to his love is a poem written by Christopher Marlowe of love promises from a shepherd to his potential lover set in a pastoral community. The shepherd is trying to convince a maiden to become his lover through romantic words that reveal their community as the best place to nurture their love. He is also ready to do everything in his power to please and make her happy if she heeds to his pleas. The shepherd is eager to cease the moment and have her love in the present situation (Payne John 714). The poem uses the word passionate to show the strong sexual urges that the shepherd has towards his object of desire. Throughout the poem, there are numerous promises and pleas by the shepherd but the maiden neither appears nor responds to his statements. The shepherd is convinced that all their pleasures will begin when she decides to live with him as his love. Summary of the stanzas In the first stanza, we are acquainted with an unidentified shepherd who appeals to a woman to join him by living together. He promises her ultimate pleasure if she agrees to live with him. There is no mention of marriage but just the will to accommodate her in his wife. The way he offers his promises show that the woman is a tough nut to crack, thus he has to make exaggerated and sometimes-impossible pledges. All their adventures are bound to happen in the pastoral settings in the ambience of nature. A common connotation for such an invitation would signify that the shepherd wanted to make love to the unidentified woman. He even suggests the private places such as the valleys, fields, woods, or hills where their love would consume them and they would derive pleasure. In the second stanza, the shepherd is keen to elaborate to the woman the perfect time for their love to bloom. The way he explains the environment at that time suggests that the season would either be spring or summer. This is because he mentions beautiful grounds where they could sit in comfort wile watching the flocks eating grass (Marlowe 67). The birds will be singing madrigals symbolize springtime as bird signals refer to a new season. The existence of grass also emphasizes on the season and the other shepherds will aid him by feeding his flock. He will seize the free time to spend the moments with his new lover as they savour the beauty of nature. All these activities in the second stanza will be done after they made love and were reminiscing of the moments they shared. The third stanza culminates into a scenario where the shepherd doubles his efforts of convincing the woman to be his lover. He does this by adding lucrative promises to the initial ones that will entice the woman to follow him to his house. He pledges to set up a variety of beds for her that has a thousand posies. The poem is full of hyperbole since the shepherd is consistent in making impossible and exaggerated promises just to gain the feedback from the woman. He even promises to dress her in magnificent kirtle adorned with other embellishments that will enhance her beauty. The kirtle seems to be a customary dress code but he promises to decorate it to show his appreciation of her acceptance for his love. In the fourth stanza, he is willing to share his riches with her by adorning her with a gown made of finest wool. He will turn the shearing procedure of obtaining the wool from the sheep into a graceful pulling session. This scenario represents his willingness to put effort into adorning his woman with all the things he can afford, thus the reason why he mentioned slippers made of nothing but pure gold. He continues alluring the woman in stanza five by taking care of all the tiny detains of her clothes. He talks of coral clasps will act as buttons and her costume will have a straw belt in addition to ivy-buds. He also takes the chance to remind the woman of how pleasurable their love will be if she accepts him. However, he does not go into detail of those pleasures he had aforementioned because in his heart he is convinced that she remembers them. The six and last stanza shows the shepherdà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s last chance on convincing the woman to be his love. He promises her that if she agrees to love him his fellow shepherds referred to as swains will sing and dance in honour of them. He says that every day of their life will be filled with laughter and the shepherds will always sing and dance for them. In the last sentence, he simplifies the magnitude of her decision by simply asking him to come and live with her to enjoy those delights. In the poem, he uses couplets to emphasize his objectives because they use the same line in different stanzas such as the repetition of the words à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€¹Ã…“live with me and come be my love.à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ Conclusion The poem generally shows that it is not easy to get love and sometimes people have to put effort. The shepherd doe not talk of the future or the past but hopes to get the woman in the present. His description about his motives is mainly geared towards satisfying his sexuality. He seems to have admired her so much to the extent of wanting her to give up her chastity. In the beginning, one would have thought that this is just a dream of an idle shepherd as he watched his flock but the mention of passion indeed shows there is a woman. The shepherd is not rich but he is willing to sacrifice whatever little he has to adorn his potential lover with the things he knows she deserves as his lover. He embarks on a journey to convince his lover with the same hard work he ploughs when he caters for his flock (Marlowe 67). He does not mention an aim of having a long time commitment but in the last stanza, he says that every day of their lives will be filled with happiness. This shows that he is w illing to nurture his love for the woman to last an eternity if she accepts him. The shepherd portrays a kind of love that innocent and pure yet filled with many erotic fantasies may be because she is the woman he has dreamt of having all his life. Throughout the poem, the shepherd is convinced that all their pleasures will begin when she decides to live with him as his love.