The Passionate Shepherd And To His Coy

Mistress Essay, Research Paper

The first of two poems that I will be studying in this essay

is Christopher Marlowe.s The Passionate

Shepherd. This poem was written at some point in the 16th

century. The poem is part of what is known as the Court Pastoral Tradition; it was written for aristocrats and the

rich. It is sophisticated poetry for sophisticated people fanaticising about a

simple life and gives the reader the idea of a rural paradise, depicting the

aristocrat as leading a simple, rural life, creating a deliberately artificial

world, combining natural goods and riches from the town. The second of the two poems that I will be studying in this

essay is Andrew Marvell.s To His Coy

Mistress. This poem was written in the 17th. century, later than the first poem. The poem uses three

methods of speech so as to persuade the writer.s coy mistress, reluctant girlfriend, to make love to him. The first

uses the Court Pastoral Tradition of

writing in a sarcastic, humorous way, putting down Marlowe.s style of writing.

The next uses shocking imagery and the final part uses positive imagery. As already mentioned, Christopher

Marlowe.s The Passionate Shepherd gives a very unrealistic, simple, almost

dream-like view of life in the countryside. This simplicity is further seen in

the simplicity of form used throughout the poem, using stanzas and simple

rhyming couplets throughout:.And we will sit upon

the rocks, And see the shepherds

feed their flocks By shallow rivers, to

whose falls Melodious birds sing madrigals.. It is important to note that the writer of this poem, Christopher

Marlowe, a Cambridge taught writer, was a homosexual. The lack and absence of

sexual form in the poem is shown in how he is unable to properly portray a

heterosexual relationship. The title .The

Passionate Shepherd to his Love., through the use of Passionate identifies that the relationship is full of feeling and

is not just at a sexual level. The first line of the poem, .Come live with me and be my Love,. uses totally mono-syllabic

words showing simplicity in the offer being made, thus showing how simple the

act of love is and how simple it is to give up all you have for the one you

have. The next three lines of this verse are:.And we will all the pleasures prove That hills and

valleys, dales and fields, Or woods or steepy

mountain yields..This depicts, incorrectly, that all the riches and pleasures

of high quality living can be found in nature. This reinforces a dream-like

world where nature is perfect and is a simple luxury. This is further shown in

the next verse. In the first line, .And we

will sit upon the rocks,. something that is meant to be uncomfortable is

made out to be nice and comfortable, reinforces the falseness of this poem. The next line, .And

see the shepherds feed their flocks. shows benefits without input,

depicting the writer isn.t even a shepherd but a rich man pretending to be

poor. The third line, .By

shallow rivers, to whose falls. is once again showing in a false statement

that nature is safe, shown in the fact that the river is made out to be shallow

and safe. Finally, in the fourth line .Melodious birds sing madrigals.. Madrigals are complicated songs

sung by aristocrats at court, not by birds in the country. These first two

paragraphs have created an obviously fake, almost dream-like depiction of .rural paradise.. This is very

traditional of the Court Pastoral

Tradition of writing as it gives the reader, mainly aristocrats a type of

sophisticated poetry fanaticising a simple life, something that most

aristocrats liked the idea of as it allowed them to experience the simplicity

of rural life without the removal of the creature comforts they are used to.The third, fourth and fifth verses combine this idea of

natural perfection with the riches of an aristocratic way of life, combining

the simple and sophisticated, embellishing the natural with riches from the

countryside:.A cap of flowers, and

a kirtle (a type of shirt/gown) Embroidered with

leaves of myrtle.. .A belt of straw and ivy-buds With coral clasps and

amber studs:. .At the end of the

paragraph, the writer asks:.And if these

pleasures thee may move, Come live with me and

be my Love..This states that if she lives with him, he will be able to

give her everything to make her live perfect. The repetition of the final line

and the simplicity of it are used to show how easy it is to give up all she has

for love. On first inspection of the final verse:.The shepherds swain shall dance and swing For thy delights each

May morning: If these delights thy mind may move, Then live with me and

be my love..It seems that it will be happy day when the writer.s love

decides to live with him, the May morning historically being a day to declare

ones love. On closer inspection, in the third sentence, the word mind is very import

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