The Passionate
Shepherd to His Love
by Christopher Marlowe
Gretchen Seewald and Laura Berge
Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,
Woods, or steepy mountain yields.
And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.
And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered 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,
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.
The shepherds' swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.
Historical Context
The poem was written during the Renaissance
Era
The poem was written from the perspective of a
shepherd. Being a shepherd was common
during the Renaissance.
This poem makes multiple references to nature
and its wonders, which makes it a
pastoral poem. Pastoral, lyric poems were
common during the time
Historical Context Cont.
Christopher Marlowe was better known for his
plays where "...he often created distinctively
Renaissance characters, providing them with
such attributes as great strength, wealth, or
knowledge" ("Marlowe, Christopher"). This
made him a man very much of his time; all
the qualities that he gave his characters were
qualities that were valued in society by
humanists. The humanist movement
represented a shift to valuing active
involvement in public life and integrating
classical values with the Bible
TPCASTT: Title
Prediction: "The Passionate Shepherd to His
Love" will be a love poem that a shepherd
wrote to a girl he loves
TPCASTT: Paraphrase
Come live with me and be my love.
We will experience all that nature gives to us.
Sit on the rocks and watch shepherds feed their
flocks by rivers as the birds all sing.
I will make you a bed and a nice set of clothes
out of stuff from nature.
If you are moved by nature's pleasures,
come live with me and be my love.
Shepherd boys will sing for your delight.
If all that makes you happy, then live with me
and be my love
TPCASTT: Connotation
•
•
•
Rhythm: Meter is Iambic Tetrameter, like a
heartbeat
Melody: Rhyming couplets; meant to be
romantic, as in shepherd's desire to be a
couple with his 'love'
Imagery: The author creates lots of pretty
images from nature when he says
things like "By shallow rivers, to
whose falls/Melodious birds sing
madrigals"
TPCASTT: Attitude/Tone
This poem is earnest and sincere. The
shepherd is really wanting the maiden to
come and live with him so that the two of
them can enjoy nature together.
TPCASTT: Shift
There is a slight shift in ideas when the poem
moves into the last stanza. Until then the
shepherd was persuading the maiden to
come live with him by presenting all the
wonderful things he and his pastoral lifestyle
had to give her. In the last stanza though the
shepherd just asks outright for the maiden's
answer;
if she likes him, then she should come
and be his love.
TPCASTT: Title
The title is pretty much like what we predicted it
would be. The shepherd is passionate about
nature and loving the girl he wrote this poem
to; that's why this poem's title fits. The whole
thing is an expression of strong, passionate
feelings.
Theme: Form
This is a lyric poem; it is a strong expression of
the shepherd's love of nature and his desire
for someone to share it with. This poem also
presents a picture of a wonderful life living in
nature and all of its splendors.
TPCASTT: Themes
1. Enjoy and live life to the fullest: this was
developed throughout the shepherd's whole
invitation to his 'love'. He is inviting her to
come and live and enjoy all of life by being
with him in nature instead of living a
conventional life
2. Keep life simple or take pleasure in the
simple things: The whole poem describes
joyful, happy feelings when the shepherd
and his love can be together just
enjoying nature. There are no complications this
way; the shepherd makes the simple forest life
Song- Fields of Gold by Sting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLVq0IAzh
1A
Annotated Bibliography
"Marlowe, Christopher (1564-1593)." DISCovering Authors. Online ed. Detroit:
Gale, 2003.Discovering Collection. Gale. Independent School District 191.
21 Apr. 2013
<http://find.galegroup.com/srcx/infomark.do?&source=gale&srcprod=DSC
&userGroupName=mnkburnsv&prodId=DC&tabID=T001&docId=EJ210110
1236&type=retrieve&contentSet=GSRC&version=1.0>.
A. This source is a biography of Christopher Marlowe. It includes details about
his early life, the era in which he wrote, and some of his more famous
works.
B. This article was published on the Gale Discovering Collection website by
DISCovering authors, and was therefore found by a credible search engine
and written by credible authors.
C. This source was mostly used for biographical information about Christopher
Marlowe in the context of hi time period. His background was taken into
account as we analyzed the poem.
Annotated Bibliography Cont.
"The Nymphs Reply to the Shepherd." EXPLORING Poetry. Online ed. Detroit:
Gale, 2003.Discovering Collection. Gale. Independent School District 191.
21 Apr. 2013.
<http://find.galegroup.com/srcx/infomark.do?&source=gale&srcprord=DISC
&userGroupName=mnkburnsv&prodId=DC&tabID=T001&docIds=EJ21143
20316&type=retrieve&contentSet=GSRC&version=1.0>.
A. This source is a brief comparison of Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate
Shepherd to His Love" and Sir Walter Raleigh's reply: "The Nymph's Reply to
the Shepherd". The author discusses Raleigh's use of realism and introduction
of change versus Marlowe's positive views of nature.
B. This source was found using the Gale Discovery Collection search engine
and is thus a source from a credible media center database. The authors of this
article are also from the Gale company itself.
C. This article provides a brief description of what Marlowe intended to present
in his pastoral poem. This article was mainly used for it's descriptions of
Marlowe's views of nature for the purpose of analyzing why Marlowe wrote
about nature.