Response To Love By Marlowe And Raleigh

Will love outlive the flowers that fade as the spring becomes winter? While the Shepherd believed that the material items would outlive time, the reality given by the Nymph is that time passes and these gifts will not sway the love that was never there. There is this notion that if an individual reaches the Garden of Eden or the Utopian world then life will be at the peak, but that world isn’t here and life may just be at the trough. Furthermore, by incorporating naturistic imagery and consistent figurative language, Marlowe and Raleigh created poems with both similar and distinctive responses to love. For instance, both poems incorporate naturistic imagery that connects to the idea of a utopian and dystopian world, by utilizing adversary images that include the idealistic and realistic argument of love. The Shepherd begins with this image of sitting “upon the rocks” as the birds …show more content…
Contrasting this, the Nymph replies with rocks becoming cold as winter hits them. By opposing the calm and relaxing image, the Nymph not only declines the gift in a cold bitter tone, but also declares that the idea is not a good one. Indeed, the Shepherd believed in beautiful gifts like a “bed of roses” and “gowns made of the finest wools” but the reality is that “soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten”. As much as material items might seem to fill the gap of love, those materials will one day no longer be there; as the Shepherd won’t be there for the Nymph. Even though, love is meant to outlive time, a beautiful image such as the Nymph, is just a beautiful image. The Nymph symbolizes this magical woman that the Shepherd believes is the best. Due to the preceding, he proclaims her all these gifts because he feels these will coerce her into loving him. Even then, spring soon becomes winter. This utilization of seasonal images