Nymph Essay

495 Words2 Pages
Response on " The Nymph's Replay to the Shepherd " : "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd" was written by Sir Walter Raleigh in response to Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love". Raleigh's poem is a witty and well-written reply to Marlowe's more innocent poem. Using similar images and metrics, Raleigh cleverly presents the nymph's world-weary response to the shepherd's new and childlike view of love. It could be considered a criticism, or at least a negative reaction to the original poem, as the nymph is in fact rejecting the shepherd in question quite harshly, and includes many lines that are directly connected to propositions made in Marlowe's poem. In Christopher Marlowe’s poem, a shepherd, in an idyllic way, enumerates his love for the beautiful nymph. Sir Walter Raleigh offers a response to the shepherd’s proposal through the keen eyes of the nymph. Both poems succeed in giving personal points of view concerning how each sees the nature of love. If each point of view is placed side by side, we see an optimism in contrast to a pessimism struggle in the ideas of the poets. In “Passionate Shepherd,” we see Marlowe paint a peaceful scene, where the shepherd promises to fulfill all his love’s dreams. Even though the shepherd offers many wonders, what he truly offers is his incessant, constant love for her. “The Nymph’s Reply,” however, portrays a cynical view of the happy-go-lucky picture drawn by the simple shepherd. She doesn’t state what she wants from shepherd, but she follows with a criticism of his “bed of roses” and “amber studs.” She argues that everything, even their love, will eventually rot. She rebuts his argument and says that if time had no end and every man told the truth, that the pleasures he had promised would convince her to be his lover. The theme of carpe diem is usually that one should "seize the day". However, the girl
Open Document