One of the Great Love Poems:
The Passionate Shepherd To His Love
One of the well-known and great love poems is "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love". Written in the 1590's by the English poet Christopher Marlowe, it is a romantic tale wherein he asks his beloved to come live with him and be his love... and speaks of all the joys that will be had between them.
Interestingly enough, it is paired with the famous and somewhat jaded reply made by Walter Raleigh entitled "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd", another of the great love poems from centuries ago.
The Passionate Shepherd To His Love
by Christopher Marlowe
Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove,
That valleys, groves, hills and fields,
Woods or steepy mountains yields.
And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.
And I will make thee beds of roses,
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;
A gown made of the finest wool,
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair-lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold;
A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs;
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me and be my love.
The shepherd swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning;
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.
~Christopher "Kit" Marlowe (1564 – 1593)
Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. It was said that he greatly affected Shakespeare's writing. Interestingly enough, there are even speculated theories that Marlowe faked his own mysterious death and took up the pen-name of William Shakespeare himself. Could it be that the two are really the one and the same?
According to Wikipedia:
...little is known about Marlowe. What little evidence there is can be found in legal records and other official documents. This has not stopped writers of both fiction and non-fiction from speculating about his activities and character. Marlowe has often been described as a spy, a brawler, a heretic and a homosexual, as well as a "magician," "duellist," "tobacco-user," "counterfeiter" and "rakehell."
What we do know is that Marlowe has written some great love poems, such as this one, that has spanned the test of time and is still famous nearly five centuries later!
Return to top of Great Love Poems: The Passionate Shepherd To His Love
Return to Famous Love Poems
|
