The Passionate Shepherd To His Love Summary

“The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” by Christopher Marlowe and “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” by Sir Walter Ralegh express ideas on love and time. However, Sir Walter Ralegh approaches the concept more realistically by using the nymph’s outlook on these topics, while Marlowe describes them in a more a dream like state through the shepherd’s view. Through the carpe diem theme, Marlowe conveys the shepherd’s views of love and time, whereas Ralegh more practical and naturally articulates the nymph’s ideas of love and time. Ralegh uses the season of winter, his thoughts on time, and his mockery of “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” to present the nymph’s rational view of love and time. Despite the pessimistic outlook on love and time in “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd,” the argument made through Raleigh’s work is more practical than Marlowe’s work, “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” because Raleigh’s work considers external factors pertaining to life and time. Bookrags states, “While Marlowe 's speaker promises nature 's beauty and a litany of gifts, Ralegh 's nymph responds that such promises could only remain valid ‘if all the world and love were young.’’’ Thus, he introduces the concepts of time and change. In his world, the seasons cause the shepherd 's "shallow rivers" to "rage," rocks to …show more content…
The Shepherd has positive points in his attempts to persuade his lover to live in the countryside, where as the nymph overall has the more logical outlook on time, love, and change. The nymph, though mocking, gives better reasoning as to what love and nature do over time. Through relating his understanding of the changing of seasons and the inevitability of time in his ridiculing response to the Shepherd, the nymph appears to have the more logical view of time, love, and the