The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
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Introduction—Author
Read the poem
Paraphrase
Pastoral poem
Vocabulary
Diction
Structure analysis
Imagery
Speaker, listener
Tone
Conclusion
Reflection
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
Christopher Marlowe
The Author
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Christopher Marlowe
1.
1564–1593 (about 29 years old)
He was an English dramatist and poet. Probably the
greatest English dramatist before Shakespeare.
Education: Marlowe was educated at Cambridge and he
went to London in 1587, where he became an actor and
dramatist for the Lord Admiral's Company.
Plays: His most important plays are the two parts of
Tamburlaine the Great (c. 1587), Dr. Faustus (c. 1588),
The Jew of Malta (c. 1589), and Edward II (c. 1592).
Marlowe's dramas: his dreams have heroic themes,
usually centering on a great personality who is
destroyed by his own passion and ambition.
The use of the language: The poetic beauty and dignity
of his language raise them to the level of high art.
Marlowe death: In 1593, Marlowe was stabbed in a
barroom brawl by a drinking companion.
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Paraphrase
Come live with me and be my love. We will
try all the pleasure offered by valleys, roves,
woods and mountains.
I want us to sit upon the rocks with
shallow rivers falling under our feet, seeing
those shepherds far away feeding their
sheep, and hearing birds sing beautifully
around us.
And I will use roses to make beds
decorated with a thousand sweet-smelling
posies for you to lie. I will weave a flower
cap, and make you kirtle fringed with myrtle
leaves.
We pull out of the finest wool from our lambs
to make a pretty gown. And a pair of highqualited slippers will be made for you, to keep
you from being cold. On the slippers I will put
buckles, which was made of purest gold.
Also, I will make you a belt of straw and ivy
buds with coral clasps and amber studs. If
these pleasure may touch your heart, come
live with me and be my love.
The young shepherd shall dance and sing in
each May morning to delight you, and if you
may be touched by these delights, then live
with me and be my love.
Pastoral Poem
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Definition
a poetic kind that concerns itself with simple life of
country folk and describes that life in stylized,
idealized terms.
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Characteristics
1)The people in the pastoral poem are usually
shepherds, although they maybe be fishermen or
other rustics who lead an outdoor life and are
involved in tending to basic human needs in a
simplified society.
2) The world of the poem is one of simplicity, music, and
love. The world is always spring, usually May. Nature
seems endlessly green and the future entirely golden.
Difficulty, frustration, disappointment, and obligation
do not belong in this world at all; it is blissfully free of
problems.
3) Shepherds sing instead of tending sheep, and they
make love and play music instead of having to watch
out for wolves in the night.
4) Besides, the language of pastoral is informal and
fairly simple, although always a bit more
sophisticated than that of real shepherds with real
problems and real sheep.
Vocabulary—pastoral description
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Grove (n.)-a small group of trees. Ex: a grove of
birch trees
Madrigal / mædrgl/ (n.) a song for several singers,
usually without musical instruments, popular in the
16th century
Posy (n.)- a small bunch of flowers
Kirtle (n.)-to decorate fabric with a pattern of stitches
usually using colored thread: Ex: an embroidered
blouse
Shepherd (n.) - a person whose job is to take care of
sheep.
Myrtle / m3 tl; AmE m3 rtl/ noun [U, C] a bush with
shiny leaves, pink or white flowers and bluish-black
berries
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Lined (n.) -(of clothes) having a lining (a layer of
material used to cover the inside surface of sth.: a pair of
leather gloves with fur linings ) inside them. Ex: a lined
skirt
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Buckle-(n.) a piece of metal or plastic used for joining
the ends of a belt or for fastening a strap on a bag, shoe,
etc
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Bud (PLANT PART) noun [C]-a small part of a plant, that
develops into a flower or leaf
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Coral (n.) [U]- a rock-like substance, formed in the sea
by groups of particular types of small animal, that is often
used in jewelry
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Clasp (v.) [T] - to hold someone or something firmly in
your hands or arms
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Amber (n.)- a hard transparent yellowishbrown substance which was formed in
ancient times from the liquid of trees and is
used in jewellery
 Stud (JEWELLERY ) (n.)- [C]
a small piece of metal jewellery that is put
through a part of your body such as your ear
or nose
 Swain (n.)- youths
Diction
Roses, flowers, leaves, lambs, straw, ivy, coral (stanza 3~5)
1.) The poet uses these words to describe the pleasant
environment and the happiness of the shepherd.
2.) These words which the poet chooses here are all related
to natural things and this is also the style of pastoral poems.
※ Besides, there are two words Prove(line 2) and Kirtle(line
11) that the poet chooses instead of Try and Gown in order to
rhyme with Love(line 1) and Myrtle(line 12).
Structure
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Main Idea:
The shepherd makes a lot of things to send his love
and in order to show his passionate affection.
The poem is divided into three parts:
Ⅰ.stanza 1~stanza2
The speaker hopes his love to live with him and enjoy
the beauty of the nature.
Ⅱ.stanza 3~stanza 5
The speaker makes many things to please and
persuade his love.
Ⅲ.stanza 6
The speaker says that everybody welcome his
love if she comes to live with him.
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Rhyme:
The poem has a special term of rhyme. Every two
lines the rhyme is the same.
Repetition:
“Come live with me and be my love” (shown on stanza
1, 5, and 6, line 1)
The repetition of the sentences strengthens his
passion to his love. In reader’s part, we can
understand speaker’s intention much more clearly
Imagery--Functions
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visual image:
1.sit upon the rocks...
2.seeing the shepherds feed their flocks by shallow
rivers
3.The shepherd swains shall dance and sing.
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audio image:
melodious birds sing madrigals
Smell image:
a thousand fragrant posies
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The Speaker & Listener
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The speaker: the passionate shepherd
The shepherd’s personality:
1)sincere:
He makes many things such as beds of roses, fragrant
posies,flower cap,kirtle,gown,slippers(shown at stanza 2 and 3)
to show his sincerity for his love to the lady.
2)rich:
He is not an ordinary shepherd, instead, a rich shepherd. We
can find evidence at the bottom of stanza 4: “Fair lined slippers
for the cold, with buckles of the purest gold.”
Tone
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Sincere
In stanza 3~5, the shepherd gives the one he adores
lots of things which are made by the shepherd,
himself such as beds of roses, fragrant posies, a cap
of flowers and a gown, slippers and a belt, and so on
in order to show his sincerity to his love.
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Passionate
The shepherd repeats the sentence “Come live with
me and be my love” three times (stanza 1, 5, 6) with
a view to expressing his passion and affections to his
love.
The speaker&listener(continued)
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The Listener: whom the shepherd loves.
The lady’s personality:
Nature-loving & tired of city life:
The shepherd offered natural scenery such as valleys,
groves, hills, fields, woods, steep mountains (stanza
1,) rocks, and rivers (stanza 2) to persuade the lady
to come live with him. Our group thinks that if the
lady accept the shepherd, she may be nature loving
or tired of noisy city life. So that she can get away
with those troublesome stuffs and really relax and
enjoy her peaceful life with the shepherd.
Comparison between M & R
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1.Introduction—Come
live with me
 2.We will see flocks,
hear birds sing
 3.Beds of roses, cap of
flowers etc.
 4.Gown, slippers
 5.Belt, coral clasps,
buckle
 6. Conclusion-- Come
live with me…
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1.NO, only if,….
 2.Winter drives the
flocks away, birds dumb
 3.Flowers fade
 4.Gown, shoes, belt,
cap, kirtle, posies wither
 5.They can not move
me
 6.If love/joy lasts forever,
yes, but…
Conclusion
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Through this poem, we can understand more
about the pastoral poem. The characteristics
of pastoral poem are unrealistic and fanciful,
and the main characters mentioned in this
kind of poem are usually shepherds,
sometimes fishermen. Also, the content of
pastoral poem are mostly related to nature
and we can find the evidences of this kind of
style (such as valleys, groves, hills, fields,
wood, and steepy mountain yields in the 1st
stanza; rocks, flocks, rivers and birds in the
2nd stanza).
However, most parts in the poem are related
to the descriptions of the nature, but
somehow we readers can enjoy the poem by
understanding the deep affection the
shepherd wants to show. Compared with the
poem. “To His Coy Mistress,” people in 17th
century are much opener and they show their
affection more directly. From this poem, “The
Passionate Shepherd to His Love,” we can
understand the attitude of people in 16th
century express their love with a gentle and
sincere tone.
Thanks for your attention!
Thanks for Alice to provide the pictures of myrtle
and clasps.
The Myrtle
Various plants of the
family Myrtaceae; :
a European shrub
having ovate or
lanceolate
evergreen leaves
and solitary axillary
white or rosy flowers
followed by black
berries
Clasps = Tendrils
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A portion or the whole
of a leaf, stipule, or
stem that is modified
into a slender spirally
coiling sensitive organ
serving to attach a plant
(as a peavine or
grapevine) to its support
and to assist it in
climbing