And we will all the pleasures prove¡¨

In ¡§The Passionate Shepherd to His Love¡¨, Christopher Marlowe described a world of pleasures, simplicity, beauty, music and love to persuade his lover to come live with him and be his love. In this pastoral poem, life is timeless, people are eternally young, the nature is endlessly green, and difficulty is invisible. The poem is beautifully written and becomes well-known. Poets of different generations are trying to write him a reply. Here I have chosen two : ¡§The Nymph¡¦s Reply to the Shepherd¡¨ and ¡§Raleigh was Right¡¨. Both of them are trying to refuse the love, but by totally different ways. I am trying to appreciate them one by one through their ideas, speaker¡¦s tone, their backgrounds and their literary devices.

First of all, I would like to talk about ¡§The Nymph¡¦s Reply to the Shepherd¡¨ which was written by Sir Walter Raleigh. The speaker¡¦s refusal is mild and gentle. In the first stanza, she appreciates the shepherd¡¦s love and promises to be his love if his words ¡§were¡¨ true. On the surface, it seems that she is glad to receive his poem and his love. Yet, the use of conditional sentence and

William Carlos Williams transmitted his message through creating images in this poem. He described the small violets growing in the long grass to tell readers that people should not stay in places where are dangerous to them. In the third stanza, ¡§Love itself a flower with roots in a parched ground.¡¨ A flower without water will die. It means that love has to supported by necessities or even luxury. Otherwise, it will fade like a flower. Repetitions are also used in this poem. The phrase ¡§long ago¡¨ has appeared twice in the third stanza. It strengthens the speaker¡¦s tone. The sentence ¡§for the country will bring us no peace¡¨ appears at the beginning and at the end of the poem. It makes the theme of the poem very sharp.

The poem was written in 1600, more or less the same period of ¡§The Passionate Shepherd to His Love¡¨. Poems of what time always consists of some kinds of romantic feelings. Though Sir Walter Raleigh critiscized the shepherd¡¦s unrealistic imagination, he still believes that the nature and the countryside are beautiful. He did not doubt whether the shepherd could create such a wonderful environment and lifestyle. What he did argue was whether the couples could lead such a life forever. It was because the countryside at that time was peaceful and good place to live in. The gifts mentioned in ¡§The Passionate Shepherd to His Love¡¨, such as the bed of roses and the ivy buds, could be obtained from the nature easily. Such a pastoral life was possible at that time in spring. Since the poet wrote his work in this peaceful and innocent century, his argument was rather mild and gentle.

Compared to the romantic shepherd and nymph, the speaker here is rather realistic and angry. Her direct refusal shows that she hates the shepherd¡¦s dreamlike proposal. She hates the world occupied by money. She is full of dissatisfaction. As a

Some topics in this essay:
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