Marlowe And Raleigh's Unhealthy Journey

1000 Words2 Pages

Life is like a river that has ebbs and flows, high and low tides, as well as rough and serene spansions. For a period of time, it may seem like smooth sailing, but, at some point, the boat is likely to hit choppy waters. This may make some sailors weary. Is it better to enter the river and risk a coarse journey, or is it more advantageous to keep to land? Christopher Marlowe and Sir Walter Raleigh evaluate sentiments like these within their poems “The Passionate Shepherd to his Love”, and “Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd”. Just as Marlowe’s shepherd sees it fit to venture for his reward, Raleigh’s Nymph isn’t willing to stake her emotions on the shepherd’s promises. The value of the reward, in this case a loving relationship, is held against …show more content…

This is achieved through Raleigh’s use of diction, especially the way that he describes love’s transformation over time. He uses words with negative connotations like “cold”, “dumb”, “fade”, and “yield” to emphasize the Nymph’s unkindly response. Most of these negative words are kept within the middle stanzas of the poem, possibly to tend to the ethos of the nymph. He paints the nymph as cautious but audacious. Her letter starts off with acknowledgement of the shepherd’s ideas, initially reflecting her as polite and respectful, but when she begins to refute the shepherd’s claims, her true nature is revealed with the help of words like “complain”, “gall”, and “wayward”. The presentation of the nymph’s character emphasizes the point of the poem; everything is not as it originally seems. As a whole, the poem touches the reader’s sense of mistrust and reminds them of instances of betrayal. The poem forces the audience to look more deeply into the nymph’s character. From hints throughout the poem, such as the second line, the reader can infer that the nymph’s experience with similar situations formed her mistrust of the shepherd. The nymph even makes a reference to Philomel, a Greek figure who was raped and used by a man, on line seven, further emphasizing her distrust in men. This creates sympathy and frustration, appealing to the audience’s pathos. Fittingly, …show more content…

While the response, “Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd”, carries a bleak and frank name, Marlowe’s title adds opinion and flavor by replacing the nymph’s name with “Love” and adding in the adjective “Passionate”. This theme holds itself throughout the poem with vivid imagery and bold, imaginative scenes. Most of this imagery focuses on either landscapes or material objects such as on line four where the shepherd describes the scenery as “Woods, or steepy mountain yields”. These qualities depict the shepherd’s ideals almost instantly. He is more concerned with joy in the moment, such as buying the expensive robe mentioned on line thirteen or the golden buckles on line sixteen, and less interested in the outcome of the situation. The shepherd doesn’t think as thoroughly about creating a relationship with the nymph as she does. Most of the shepherd’s attempts to impress the nymph come off as hasty and foolish, especially when compared to the nymph’s intricate reply. The shepherd promises things that he cannot deliver, such as on line twenty-one where he describes others dancing every May morning just for the delight of his love. This evokes skepticism in the eyes of the reader and supports the nymph’s assertions that the shepherd is not to trust. Not only does the shepherd exaggerate what he has to offer, he also treats the recipient of the letter as

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