Analysis Of The Passionate Shepherd To His Love

Christopher Marlowe’s most famous poem “The Passionate Shepherd to his Love” shows all the different qualities of a classic poem of the late 1500s. The pastoral poem displays the nature of true love and all the many things a person will do to win their love over. Marlowe wrote this poem in the height of the talents of authors such as the most famous one living and writing at the time, William Shakespeare. Authors like Marlowe and Shakespeare teach these ideas of perfect and sweet love in many of their works, “The Passionate Shepherd to his Love” being the best example. The poem uses many things found in Romanticism such as descriptions of nature and symbolism to display how it is a true romantic poem. However, Marlowe also uses other characteristics

The shepherd is constantly offering only the best objects and possessions to this woman. "As precious as the gods do eat, shall on an ivory table be prepared each day for thee and me."(Marlowe 22) Marlowe is saying how his love for her is so amazing it is equal to the gods, and she deserves nothing less than to be treated like a goddess. His exaggeration of what he thinks she should deserve shows how much she means to him and how powerful his love is. By comparing her to a goddess he shows that he thinks of her as the perfect person and wishes to treat her that way with his love. Marlowe uses many other examples of hyperbole to show what he thinks his love deserves. "There will I make thee beds of roses And a thousand fragrant posies" (Marlowe 9) It would be impossible to actually make a bed of thousands of flowers, but the impossible is exactly what Marlowe is offering because he thinks his love is so amazing. This also shows how he promises her incredible things to get her to fall in love with him. These gifts show how madly in love the shepherd is for this woman, “The shepherd is promising the impossible” (Hacht) Although this shepherd would attempt to give his love these gifts it is overall impossible. This over exaggeration of what the shepherd believes he can give to this woman embodies many of the ideas of

This focus on foreshadowing presents another idea of Romanticism throughout the poem. The shepherd moves away from descriptions of what unrealistic possessions he would give her, such as a bed of a thousand poises, and begins to focus on material objects that describe her. "A gown made of the finest wool which from our pretty lambs we pull" (Marlowe 13) He foreshadows a beautiful gown that he would buy her, which can also be seen as buying her this gown for when they are married and she accepts his love. This helps the reader to paint a picture of what their life would be like and also what this woman looks like, “an image of the shepherd 's newly adorned mistress begins to emerge.” (Hacht) Marlowe also continues to talk about what their life would be like together, not only the things he would buy for her. If she accepts his proposal and many promises, they would live a happy life together “There will we sit upon the rocks and see the shepherds feed their flocks” (Marlowe 5). As the shepherd talks about how their lives would be together he also continues to say how he will spoil her. This love that the shepherd feels for her consumes him as he wants nothing more than to live the rest of his life with her. Marlowe uses the foreshadowing of their life together to show how much this shepherd loves this woman and how strong this love is. The