Poetry Analysis Essay on "The Passionate Shepherd to his Love" and "The Nymph's reply to the Shepherd"

Introduction

Poetry is a form of art that enables the poets to express multidimensional feelings and emotions influencing their personal beliefs and doctrines. It exposes the vulnerability of humanity in the socio-cultural and economic spheres. Also, poetry discloses various vices like discrimination, prejudice, and marginalization within the society that most individuals ignore. The poems "The Passionate Shepherd to his Love" by Christopher Marlowe and "The Nymph's reply to the Shepherd" by Sir Walter Raleigh reveals the human susceptibility, the significant importance of love and the bitter reality against the illusion of love. Both poets depict the emotional settings and socio-cultural expectations associated with human gratifications ranging from sexual satisfaction to physical possession.

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Both poems appeal to various attitudes and tones as the shepherd strives to seduce his love while the nymph resists his seductive charms and promises. The shepherd utilizes sensitive, loving and soft expressions and tones as he presents his plea and offer to his love to allure and fascinate her to accept his offer. For instance, the shepherd directly addresses his fundamental need "Come live with me" then gently and softly coats his proposal with a persuasive tone "and be my love" to express his vulnerability, truthful and honest compassion for his love. Moreover, he speaks of "May mornings," when the sun rises, and people are meant to make a wish, as a romantic gesture to attract his lover's heart and emissions while adding a sense of softness on his tone. Nevertheless, despite the nymph resisting the shepherd's plea, she also uses a soft and romantic tone while expounding on the reasons for declining the offer. For example, she explains that she would love to live, be his lover and enjoy all the presents and experiences that he is promising. However, life is not a fairy tale since it changes, the spring changes to fall, a bed of roses, gown, shoes, kirtle, and posies soon wither, break and go forgotten. Therefore, both poems distinctly use soft and gentle tones and attitudes to express emotions.

Additionally, the poems use diverse imagery to depict the conventional objects, which had significant socio-cultural and economic meaning for the people. For instance, Marlowe lists many activities that the shepherd is offering the nymph such as "the bed of roses, the mountain yields, madrigal melodious birds' songs, gowns made from the fines wool, a cap of flower and a kirtle embroidered all with leaves of myrtle, and a thousand fragrant posies," which are natural phenomena with no artificial effects. Marlowe uses the images to show the beauty of love and the extra sense of freedom of the pastoral life. The shepherd invites the nymph to forget all the socio-economic restriction and experience the perfect joy provided by nature. However, Raleigh through the nymph declines the offer stating various skeptical and traditional constrictions that prevents many individuals from attaining their goals, dreams, and happiness. Despite the promise of utopia lifestyle, the nymph uses imagery like "rocks grow cold, birds complain of winter, the rivers rage and fields yield to the harvest" to decline the offer. The nymph uses the imagery and hypothetical questions to undermine the intelligence of the shepherd's offer disputing them as transitory with no perpetual lasting significance. Moreover, when she alluded that "the flocks are driven to fold in winter," she depicted negative imagery stating the reason for her resistance and rejection of the idealistic shepherd world.

Conclusion

Finally, while "The Passionate Shepherd to his Love" by Christopher Marlowe displays optimistic and hopeful attitude the shepherd has in courting his love, "The Nymph's reply to the Shepherd" by Sir Walter Raleigh, the nymph's response portrays frequent negativity and pessimistic attitude as she continuously rejects the shepherds idealistic world since she prefers her realistic world. Therefore, the poems indicate the two extreme ideologies prevalent in the contemporary society, which prevent many people from attaining their goals, objectives, and happiness. Until people learn to transcend beyond the socio-cultural and economic boundaries, limitations and constrictions, they will never know happiness, since they will continue to be prisoners of realistic ideologies that repress enlightenment.