poetry analysis

Poetry Analysis “The Passionate Shepherd to His love” by, Christopher Marlowe and “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” by, Sir Walter Raleigh are both pastoral poems that tend to basic human desires in a simplified country life of beauty, music, and love. “The Passionate Shepherd to His love” idealizes the shepherd’s country life to try and win the love of his lady. On the contrary, “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” is a parody to “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love.” Sir Walter Raleigh pretends to write in the style of the original poem but exaggerates that style and changes the content for comic effect. In The Nymph’s Reply, the nymph’s idea of the shepherd’s ever-lasting gifts is comical. In other words, the nymph shuts him down and even if the shepherds gifts where ever-lasting then it would still just be a maybe. While both “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” and “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” use the same writing style, “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” uses different poetic elements such as tone, imagery and diction to spoof “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love.” Imagery is used in literature in order to describe or enhance sensory experiences to the text. The imagery in both “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” and “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” is of the country life. Both poems provide the reader with imagery of fields of flock, flowers, rivers, and material things made from nature. However, the imagery of these two poems may be of the same thing, but their views on what it may look like are entirely different. “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” by Christopher Marlowe provides imagery of the beautiful pleasures the shepherd has to offer; he says “And I will make thee bed of roses and a thousand fragrant poses, a cap of flowers, and a kirtle embroidered all with leaves of myrtle” (Marlowe 914). In other words, the imagery of the materialistic items illustrates what the shepherd is willing to offer if this lady will be his love.