The Passionate Shepherd Poems :: Poems Poetry Shepherds Essays

The rabid Shepherd Poems The poems The hot Shepherd to His Love (Marlowe), The Nymphs Reply to the Shepherd (Raleigh), and cry (Lewis ) all focus on the same basic plot and characters only when vary considerably in point of view and theme. This difference comes principally through the difference in the poems speakers. A poor shepherd is the region of both The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, and verse. However, the shepherds of the two poems feature almost verso attitudes. The shepherd in The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, the original poem of the series, is a romantic idealist who paints beautiful ascertains for the girl he loves of beds of roses and riches. In contrast, the shepherd in Song seems almost pessimistic. He too paints a picture for the girl he loves, but his is of hardship, toil, and bitterness, not beauty and love. This difference in attitude completely changes the light in which each of the poems is viewed. Because of the light-hearted, romantic tones of The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, the indorser experiences a similar dreamy, faraway mood. The reader of Song, however, feels only distress and perhaps longing for a world of great possibilities than the grim one the speaker describes in the poem. The speaker of The Nymphs Reply to the Shepherd shines yet another light on the general plot of the poems. In this poem, we see a possible reply of the woman to the original Passionate Shepherd in the Christopher Marlowe poem. Unimpressed by the shepherds dissipated promises, she practically answers that such material things will fade and the only things rich are the passionate and pure feelings of love in youth. If her shepherd could process these last, she might be moved to be his love. This poem evokes in the reader both feelings of romance (the nymph does seem as though she whitethorn care about the eloquent shepherd and want to be his love) and those of sadness (the nymph seems to want something more than what the shepherd m ay be equal to offer her).