The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd
Sir-walter-raleigh
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The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd by Sir Walter Raleigh
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This poem is written in response to Christopher Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love.” It is safe to assume that the nymph in the title is the speaker of the poem. The title indicates that the poem is her answer to the shepherd’s attempts to persuade her to come with him and be his love.
The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd Annotated
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.