The+Passionate+Shepherd+to+his+Love


 * Title:** //The Passionate Shepherd to His Love//


 * Author:** Christopher Marlowe


 * Genre/Influence:** Considered to be a piece of __pastoral poetry__, where ordinary rural life is romanticized and given surreal qualities. These poems are often very personal, and only told from one perspective.


 * Distinguishable Poetic Devices/Style:** Written in iambic tetrameter, most lines contain eight syllables. This style of poetry was very popular at the time, particularly with the emergence of Shakespeare and other renaissance poets. This poem contains a very simple ABAB rhyme scheme within each four line stanza.


 * Historical Period/Influence:** Published in 1599, six years after Christopher's death. Considered a milestone of English renaissance poetry, it helped revolutionize the concept of __pastoral fiction__, inspiring many other renaissance writers. Sir Walter Raleigh, another prominent poet of the era, would later write //The Nymph's Reply To The Shepherd,// detailing the negative reaction of the nymph towards the lustful shepherd.


 * Characters/ Relationships:** The poem is told entirely from the perspective of the shepherd. It is meant to be dictated towards his 'love', represented as a nymph of the forest. The shepherd obviously desires this 'love' very much, as he promises her many exuberant gifts, many of which seem rather costly for a lowly sheepherder. The nymph's reply to this romantic poem is negative, as described by Sir Walter Raleigh.


 * Setting/Plot:** Takes place in the sheepherding fields of England, with no specific location. The entire poem is the passionate shepherd describing to his 'love' how leisurely and wonderful their lives would be together. He promises her various riches and beautiful garments, as well as insinuates that they will live in luxury, watching all the other shepherds work around them. As shepherds were typically poor at the time, most of the things he describes are unreachable, due to a lack of money and talents.

-Many references to nature are made. The passionate shepherd describes weaving clothing and creating 'beds of roses'. This helps emphasize that this is a pastoral poem, combining elements of everyday life, such as flowers and trees, with a sense of fantasy and surrealism. -The final two stanzas end in very similar ways, with their final two couplets being almost identical.
 * Thematic Observations:** -Shepherd describes watching the other shepherds feeding their flocks. This insinuates that he will not be working himself, making his dreams of riches and beauty even more impossible.

-'A cap of flowers, and a kirtle Embroidered all with leaves of Myrtle'. Lines such as this emphasize that the shepherds 'love' is a forest nymph, who wears garments of flowers and plants. -'The shepherd swains shall dance and sing For thy delight each May morning'. Apparently, the other shepherds will also rejoice at the union of passionate shepherd and nymph. -'If these delights thy mind may move, Then live with me and be my love'. The shepherd ends his proposal, hoping that the promises of riches and luxury will sway his 'love'.
 * Quotable:** -**'**By shallow rivers, to whose falls Melodious birds sing madrigals'. Insinuates that even forest creatures will rejoice in their love.