"The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd" was written by Sir Walter Raleigh in response to Christopher Marlowe

Christopher Marlowe

Christopher Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. As the foremost Elizabethan tragedian, next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his mysterious death.A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest on 18 May...

's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

"The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" is a poem written by the English poet Christopher Marlowe and published in 1599 . In addition to being one of the most well-known love poems in the English language, it is considered one of the earliest examples of the pastoral style of British poetry in the...

". It could be considered a criticism, or at least a negative reaction to the original poem, as the nymph

Nymph

A nymph in Greek mythology is a female minor nature deity typically associated with a particular location or landform. Different from gods, nymphs are generally regarded as divine spirits who animate nature, and are usually depicted as beautiful, young nubile maidens who love to dance and sing;...

is in fact rejecting the shepherd in question quite harshly, and includes many lines that are directly connected to propositions made in Marlowe's poem. Others read the poem as a critique of the entire pastoral convention, suggesting through its use of Philomel that women are denied a voice in the traditional literature. The last stanza, "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," suggests either that the nymph's rejection of the shepherd is related to her own feelings of mortality and the transience of life, or that her acceptance is predicated upon the impossible and, therefore, never to come.

The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd

If all the world and love were young,

And truth in every shepherd's tongue,

These pretty pleas 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 complains 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 beds 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 may move

To live with thee and be thy love.


Sir Walter Raleigh