The nymph’s reply to the shepherd
Walter Raleigh’s poem “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” was published in 1600. It is a parodic response to Christopher Marlowe’s poem “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”, published the previous year.
Walter Raleigh was born on 22 January 1552 (or 1554) in Hayes Barton, East Budleigh, Devon, England, and he died on 29 October 1618 in London, England, at the age of 64 or 66.
A statesman, soldier, writer, and explorer, Raleigh was one of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, playing a leading part in English colonization of North America, suppressing rebellion in Ireland, helping to defend England against the Spanish Armada, and holding political positions under Elizabeth I.
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Wikipedia page on “The nymph’s reply to the shepherd”
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If all the world and love were young, And truth in every shepherd’s tongue, These pretty pleasures might me move To live with thee, and be thy love.
Time drives the flocks from field to fold, When rivers rage and rocks grow cold, And Philomel becometh dumb, The rest complains of cares to come.
The flowers do fade, and wanton fields To wayward winter reckoning yields, A honey tongue, a heart of gall, Is fancy’s spring, but sorrow’s fall.
Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses, Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten: In folly ripe, in reason rotten.
Thy belt of straw and ivy buds, The coral clasps and amber studs, All these in me no means can move To come to thee and be thy love.
But could youth last, and love still breed, Had joys no date, nor age no need, Then these delights my mind might move To live with thee, and be thy love.