Sunday, October 27, 2024

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by Christopher Marlowe | Structure, Summary, Analysis


Hello and welcome to the Discourse. ‘The Passionate Shepherd to His Love’ is a poem by Christopher Marlowe in the early 1590s. The poem's speaker urges his beloved, who presumably dwells in an urban environment, to join him in a life in the countryside. The poem was published posthumously in around 1600. is a lyric poem that draws on the Classical tradition of pastoral poetry, which is used to create an idealized vision of rural life within the context of personal emotion. The Greek poet Theocritis, in the third century B.C.E. is considered to be the first pastoralist poet.

To seduce his lover, the speaker of Marlowe’s poem describes a rural life full of intense sensual pleasure—but unpolluted by sin or sorrow. The poem was published around 1600 and soon got the attention of many other poets and literary critics. The poem doesn’t provide any information about the gender of the speaker’s “love.” It can be assumed that like Marlowe’s other homoerotic works, including Edward II, and Hero and Leander, which also contain long homoerotic passages, this poem may also have a similar undercurrent of homoeroticism. However, most of Marlowe’s readers assume the shepherd’s “love” is female. Sir Walter Raleigh replied to Marlowe's shepherd with the poem "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd" (1600) with romantic realism countering romantic idealism; his Nymph reminds the shepherd that time will wither all the material gifts he offers, and his pastoral ideal will not last.

Structure of The Passionate Shepherd to His Love:

Marlowe wrote this poem with six four-line stanzas of rhyming couplets written in an iambic tetrameter rhythm (four feet of two syllables with the stress on the second syllable). The poem is written in rhyming couplets, with two couplets to a stanza. Its rhymes are serial. In general, each couplet introduces a new rhyme, so the poem is rhymed AABB, CCDD, EEFF, GGHH, IIJJ, and KKAA. The tone of the poem appears to be seductive.

Marlowe made good use of Imagery in the poem. The speaker creates in the readers' mind a picture of a delightful and varied landscape, filled with rivers and the song of numerous birds; of thousands of flowers that can be used in a variety of ways to adorn the beloved – a cap, embroidered petticoats, a belt.

Apart from that, the poet used SymbolismPersonificationApostropheAlliterationHyperboleEnjambmentRepetition, and Allusion. The speaker of the poem is a shepherd but like most other pastoral poems, the speaker doesn’t discuss the hardship of a shepherd’s real life, he spends much of the poem articulating erotic desire, using euphemism and metaphor to disguise it. It can be said that the speaker isn’t really a shepherd, rather, he is a lover who takes on a shepherd’s disguise to create some distance between himself and his ‘love’.

Summary of A Passionate Shepherd to His Love:

Stanza 1 Lines 1-4

Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove,
That Valleys, groves, hills, and fields,
Woods, or steepy mountain yields.

The speaker begins by inviting his love to come with him and "pleasures prove." It can be suggested as a mild sexual tone, however, the tone is naive and innocent. The speaker suggests that the entire geography of the countryside of England "Valleys, groves, hills and fields/Woods or steepy mountains" will prove to contain pleasures of all kinds for the lovers. The speaker passionately calls his lover to come and live with him, assuming that his lover, upon hearing his request, will leave whatever life she is living behind, and come and “be [his] love” in the countryside. Thus, the speaker continues to describe to her what her life will be if she agrees. He says that the entire beautiful world will yield passion and love for them, the two lovers.

Stanza 2 Lines 5-8

And we will sit upon the Rocks,
Seeing the Shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow Rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing Madrigals.

In the second stanza, the speaker contrasts the urban entertainment with the pastoral ones. He describes how their life will be if his lover leaves her urban life to be with him in the countryside. They will have their entertainment not in a theater or a banquet but they will sit upon the rocks by the river. They will watch shepherds feeding their flocks, or listening to waterfalls and the songs of birds. The speaker himself is a shepherd as he suggests, but it appears he will have enough leisure time to entertain his lover while other shepherds continue their work.

Here, the speaker may also be suggesting that since now the two lovers will be devoted to each other, they will have time to observe the details of their lives and thus, they would be able to observe and appreciate his life as a shepherd while enjoying the natural environment of the beautiful countryside. The songs of the birds will be like “Madrigals,” or harmonious pieces of music written for theaters. The birds are being personified.

Stanza 3 Lines 9-12

And I will make thee beds of Roses
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of Myrtle;

The speaker continues to offer more enticements in the hope that his lover will join him in the countryside. He describes how he will “make [her] a bed of Roses.” He will fill her life with flowers by creating for her a “kirtle” or an outer gown, and a “cap,” which will all be “Embroidered…with the leaves of Myrtle,” a common flowering shrub. These are sartorial delights the Shepherd will make for his lady love.

Stanza 4 Lines 13-16

A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty Lambs we pull;
Fair lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold;

The speaker is confidently hopeful that his love will join him in the countryside and describes how he will prepare for her when she arrives. She will need clothing, so he will spin for her a “gown made of the finest wool” from the lambs that they will tend together. The speaker knows what his lover would like and he promises to offer best of it. He does not neglect her feet and states that she will also have “Fair lined slippers” that she can wear when it gets cold. The buckles on her shoes will be made of the “purest gold.” 

Stanza 5 Lines 17-20

A belt of straw and Ivy buds,
With Coral clasps and Amber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.

The speaker continues to offer more precious gifts for her lover. She will have a belt made “of straw and Ivy buds.” It will also feature “Coral clasps and Amber studs.” It is clear that the speaker knows what entices her lover’s heart and promises her to provide everything she could wish for. However, it is difficult to imagine how a poor shepherd who tends sheep and goats will the gold buckles, the coral clasps, Ivy buds, and the amber studs. This increasingly fanciful list of gifts could only come from a member of the noble gentry or a merchant in a town.

He already mentioned that if his lover comes by his side, they will idly sit on the rocks enjoying the scenery and observing the day-to-day lives of shepherds.

This is another trait of the pastoral poetry. While the poem celebrates the delights of rural life, the poet, the speaker, and the reader are assumed to be noble, they are not supposed to do the hard work and experience the real hardship of a shepherd’s life.

Stanza 6 Lines 21-24

The Shepherds’ Swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May-morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me, and be my love.

In the last stanza, the speaker suggests that if his lover accepts her offer and comes to live with him in the countryside, all will be happy. He describes if she comes to live with him, the “Shepherds’ Swains,” or his comrades, will “dance and sing.” All people will “delight” in the fact that they are finally together as they should be. In the last couplet, the speaker repeats his offer and asks that if “these delights” move “thy mind” then she should come “live with [him] and be [his] love.

Symbolism in The Passionate Shepherd to His Love:

The shepherd in the poem is more of the symbol of the speaker, who is a lover. The shepherd is a symbol of the poet himself, a mask that the poet uses to express his desires.

Another symbol is Myrtle. Myrtle is a flowering plant that is often mentioned in Greek and Roman poetry and mythology. Myrtle is a sacred plant to Aphrodite, the goddess of desire and love.

In Line 14, the speaker mentions Lambs, which again is a symbol of purity and innocence. His call for his lover may appear seductive, but it is innocent and pure. In the 17th line, the speaker mentions Ivy's buds. Ivy again is a symbol for marriage between a man and a woman.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!

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