The Passionate Shepherd to His Love 2017-2018
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Below are the two poems, “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love,” and “Nymph’s Reply”. The first poem is a proposal to an imaginary woman. The second poem is in response to this imaginary poem. See if you can determine from these two poems what the nature of the conversation is.
To do this assignment you will need to use this vocabulary.
- Alliteration: Repetition of consonant sounds. For example, “pleasures prove”
- Personification: Giving inhuman objects or animals human characteristics
- Assonance: Repetition of vowel sounds. For example, “me and be”
- End Rhyme: The rhyming of the end words
- Iambic Pentameter: An Iamb is the stressed/ unstressed sound in a word. Pentameter means that there are 5 feet, or 5 iambs in a line of poetry.
Please do the following:
- Highlight the passages that shows at least 2 or more of the literary devices in each poem. Tell us which device is being used and what it’s affect is.
- Summarize the poem and tell us what the author is suggesting.
The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd
In this poem an anonymous lover is responding to the Shepard’s cry for passion. It comprises of the reasoning she has for not being with him.
In reply to the previous poem the reply-er talks about how not everything will last forever and how the plants and so on will all die out some day, possibly even love.
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,
Alliteration and iambic pentameter are used in this passage.
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,
This is a example of an alliteration because wayward and winter start with the same consonant.
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.
“In folly ripe, in reason rotton.” uses the repetition of consonant and vowel sounds.
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
This is another good example of an alliteration, “my mind might move” all start with the same consonant.
To live with thee, and be thy love.
The shepherd’s lover responds to his poem by telling him what she feels about everything he said. She’s saying that nothing else would move her to live with him except for just his love. She doesn’t need anything to set the mood, she just wants his love.
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The nymph is not going to marry the shepherd as she sees the love he offers will fade over time.
i.e. AA BB CC… so on so forth.
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