Comparing The Passionate Shepherd To His Love And Raleigh Was Right
The reality of life, love and nature are widely popular topics among humans. Everybody has different beliefs and ideas about it. Some people are more romantic, while others are a bit cynical. “The Passionate Shepherd to his Love” by Christopher Marlowe, “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” by Sir Walter Raleigh and “Raleigh Was Right” by William Carlos Williams are all poems that show different viewpoints on life, love and nature. Williams developed and transformed the central idea of these three poems by connecting the shepherd’s and the nymph’s contradicting beliefs with his own. One way Williams does this is by using a metaphor in order to describe and connect their beliefs on love. In the poem, “The Passionate Shepherd to his Love” by Christopher Marlowe, the shepherd uses romantic words such as fragrant, finest,
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pretty, fair and purest in order to create this image of a perfect life that they would have. He also promises her all of these materialistic pleasures such as gowns, shoes, flowers, and many others. This shows that the shepherd has a fairytale-like view of love. He believes that if the girl would just come and be with him, they would live in this utopia with no worries or quandaries. The girl in Raleigh’s poem, “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd”, responds to that by saying, “All these in me no means can move to come to thee and be thy love.” All of his promises are not enough because she knows that they will not last. She has a more realistic view on love. She is disillusioned and knows that love isn’t what the shepherd thinks it to be. In the poem, “Raleigh Was Right”, Williams connects these two viewpoints by saying, “Love itself a flower with roots in a parched ground.” He compares love to a flower that is planted on dried out land. He is trying to say that love appears to be beautiful and picturesque, but to the root of it all it’s actually not as perfect as people think it is. This connects the two contradicting beliefs of the shepherd and the nymph. Another way Williams develops and transform the central idea is by connecting Marlowe’s and Raleigh’s use and description of nature.
In Marlowe’s poem, the shepherd promises his love many materialistic pleasures that are all made up of things from nature. For example, he promises her a cap made out of flowers, a kirtle made out of leaves of myrtle and a belt made out of straw and ivy buds. He describes them as being beautiful and very fairytale-like. He builds up this idea that nature is faultless and delightful. The nymph, however, has a very different approach on nature. She believes that it isn’t as perfect as it seems. This is proven when she says, “The flowers do fade, and wonton fields, to wayward winter reckoning yields.” Williams connects all of this by saying, “Cure it if you can but do not believe that we can live today in the country for the country will bring us no peace.” He believes that you can try and make nature or even life and love seem better, but that doesn’t mean that you should ever believe that they are perfect. They are not perfect. Nothing is perfect. That is how Williams further developed and transformed the central
idea. Another way Williams transformed the central idea is by making his poem completely different from the first two poems in terms of structure. The first poem, “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” By Marlowe, and the second poem, “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” by Raleigh, are very similar in the way they are structured. They both have six stanzas with four lines each. If you would read it one stanza at a time, back and forth from each poem, it’ll actually sound like a conversation. For example, in Marlowe’s poem in the fifth stanza lines 19-20 it says, “And if these pleasures may thee move, come live with me and be my love.” In Raleigh’s poem in the fifth stanza lines 19-20 it says, “All these in me no means can move to come to thee and be thy love.” Williams made his poem completely different, in terms of structure, in order to make it more than just a girl and a guy bantering about love. He takes it even further and deeper. This makes sense because Williams wrote his poem during the Great Depression. His poem wasn’t really about love between a man and a woman. It was more so about the cruel reality of life. This is how he further developed the central idea of these three poems. Life, love and nature are topics that have been talked about for centuries. This is because everybody has their own opinions and ideas. “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” by Christopher Marlowe, “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” by Sir Walter Raleigh and “Raleigh Was Right” by William Carlos Williams are all poems that show different views on life, love and nature. Williams connected the contradicting ideas of the shepherd and the nymph with his own as well as use metaphors and structure in order to develop and transform the central idea.
pretty, fair and purest in order to create this image of a perfect life that they would have. He also promises her all of these materialistic pleasures such as gowns, shoes, flowers, and many others. This shows that the shepherd has a fairytale-like view of love. He believes that if the girl would just come and be with him, they would live in this utopia with no worries or quandaries. The girl in Raleigh’s poem, “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd”, responds to that by saying, “All these in me no means can move to come to thee and be thy love.” All of his promises are not enough because she knows that they will not last. She has a more realistic view on love. She is disillusioned and knows that love isn’t what the shepherd thinks it to be. In the poem, “Raleigh Was Right”, Williams connects these two viewpoints by saying, “Love itself a flower with roots in a parched ground.” He compares love to a flower that is planted on dried out land. He is trying to say that love appears to be beautiful and picturesque, but to the root of it all it’s actually not as perfect as people think it is. This connects the two contradicting beliefs of the shepherd and the nymph. Another way Williams develops and transform the central idea is by connecting Marlowe’s and Raleigh’s use and description of nature.
In Marlowe’s poem, the shepherd promises his love many materialistic pleasures that are all made up of things from nature. For example, he promises her a cap made out of flowers, a kirtle made out of leaves of myrtle and a belt made out of straw and ivy buds. He describes them as being beautiful and very fairytale-like. He builds up this idea that nature is faultless and delightful. The nymph, however, has a very different approach on nature. She believes that it isn’t as perfect as it seems. This is proven when she says, “The flowers do fade, and wonton fields, to wayward winter reckoning yields.” Williams connects all of this by saying, “Cure it if you can but do not believe that we can live today in the country for the country will bring us no peace.” He believes that you can try and make nature or even life and love seem better, but that doesn’t mean that you should ever believe that they are perfect. They are not perfect. Nothing is perfect. That is how Williams further developed and transformed the central
idea. Another way Williams transformed the central idea is by making his poem completely different from the first two poems in terms of structure. The first poem, “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” By Marlowe, and the second poem, “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” by Raleigh, are very similar in the way they are structured. They both have six stanzas with four lines each. If you would read it one stanza at a time, back and forth from each poem, it’ll actually sound like a conversation. For example, in Marlowe’s poem in the fifth stanza lines 19-20 it says, “And if these pleasures may thee move, come live with me and be my love.” In Raleigh’s poem in the fifth stanza lines 19-20 it says, “All these in me no means can move to come to thee and be thy love.” Williams made his poem completely different, in terms of structure, in order to make it more than just a girl and a guy bantering about love. He takes it even further and deeper. This makes sense because Williams wrote his poem during the Great Depression. His poem wasn’t really about love between a man and a woman. It was more so about the cruel reality of life. This is how he further developed the central idea of these three poems. Life, love and nature are topics that have been talked about for centuries. This is because everybody has their own opinions and ideas. “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” by Christopher Marlowe, “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” by Sir Walter Raleigh and “Raleigh Was Right” by William Carlos Williams are all poems that show different views on life, love and nature. Williams connected the contradicting ideas of the shepherd and the nymph with his own as well as use metaphors and structure in order to develop and transform the central idea.