English+Renaissance

- Forward thinking to the potential of humans - Move from Middle English to Elizabethan Literature - 1500-1660 - A "rebirth" - Humanisn - belief in infinite potential of mankind; personal achievement, power of individual - Pastoral imagery (pastoral idealism) - individuals fulfilling themselves in nature - And spiritual Christian connotations
 * Carpe Diem - Seize the Day (YOLO)** or Pastoral Idealism

Authors: - Edmund Spenser - Shakespeare - Samuel Daniel

Poems are pretty straight forward... not a lot to analyze. He loves her, he throws some flowers around, she says she doesn't want him (total friendzone) because love doesn't last! (further analysis below). = = =The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd= By 1552–1618 Sir Walter Ralegh 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.

A witty reply to The Passionate Shepherd to His Love in which Raleigh claims that you should not seize the day -- young love does not last forever. This is depressing soudning, but Raleigh writes it satirically with a cynical view of love. He describes "flowers fading" and "sorrow's fall," clearly expressing the idea that material goods don't last; to quote the late and great Beatles, "I don't care too much for money, money don't buy me love." Raleigh is saying the same: these things you can give me will die, so our young love will fade with the flowers -- young love could last if "had joys no date, nor age no need."


 * C. Marlowe ||
 * **The Passionate Shepherd to His Love** ||
 * **The Passionate Shepherd to His Love** ||


 * COME live with me and be my Love, || ||
 * And we will all the pleasures prove || ||
 * That hills and valleys, dale and field, || ||
 * And all the craggy mountains yield. || ||
 * There will we sit upon the rocks || //5// ||
 * And see the shepherds feed their flocks, || ||
 * By shallow rivers, to whose falls || ||
 * Melodious birds sing madrigals. || ||
 * There will I make thee beds of roses || ||
 * And a thousand fragrant posies, || //10// ||
 * A cap of flowers, and a kirtle || ||
 * Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle. || ||
 * A gown made of the finest wool || ||
 * Which from our pretty lambs we pull, || ||
 * Fair linèd slippers for the cold, || //15// ||
 * With buckles of the purest gold. || ||
 * 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. || //20// ||
 * Thy silver dishes for thy meat || ||
 * As precious as the gods do eat, || ||
 * Shall on an ivory table be || ||
 * Prepared each day for thee and me. || ||
 * The shepherd swains shall dance and sing || //25// ||
 * For thy delight each May-morning: || ||
 * If these delights thy mind may move, || ||
 * Then live with me and be my Love.
 * Prepared each day for thee and me. || ||
 * The shepherd swains shall dance and sing || //25// ||
 * For thy delight each May-morning: || ||
 * If these delights thy mind may move, || ||
 * Then live with me and be my Love.
 * Then live with me and be my Love.

Marlowe describes a very childlike view of love (saying he will give her a lot, ie "cap of flowers," "gown made of the finest wool") through his pastoral imagery and idealized vision of rural life. He claims that the shepherd and his love can roam at will and that love will last forever if only the shepherd's love will seize the day. Despite the annoying rhyme scheme (in what world does love rhyme with move), Marlowe completes the poem full circle by again having the desperate shepherd to ask his lover to live with him. This poem as a whole centers around pastoral imagery: a lot of "hills and valleys, dale and field." ||