Dylan Vs Marllowe

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Both Bob Dylan’s “Boots of Spanish Leather” and Christopher Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” utilize material gifts, but each use these materials to draw different conclusions. The speaker in “Boots of Spanish Leather” is offered an ultimately asks for gifts from his lover as a consolation, whereas the speaker in “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” offers gifts to his lover in an effort to manipulate them. This demonstrates the true basis of both relationships- the first poem exhibits a romantic love, the other desire. Dylan’s “Boots of Spanish Leather” demonstrates ballad characteristics, as it utilizes casual language and issues surrounding love. “Boots of Spanish Leather” begins with the first speaker asking their love if there is something they can send home from their …show more content…

The speaker opens the poem by asking the subject of the poem to live with him. At first, this seems romantic, but doesn't include any promise of an enduring relationship- and he immediately follows up with his true intentions: “[a]nd we will all the pleasures prove” (Marlowe 2). Contradicting the first line, line 2 presents an underlying sexual desire: they can experience the ‘pleasures’ of their new home together. However, if the subject does not come and live with him, everything is off the table. In contrast to “Boots of Spanish Leather”, we never receive any response from the subject of this poem. But due to the persuasion that follows, he believes that the subject will take convincing. The true nature of the poem is introduced in the first few lines: despite the romantic language, the poem is about desire. And as Metzger notes in her essay, the subject of the poem “…who has no name and no identity, also has no voice. She exists only within the shepherd's plea.” The speaker never uses specifics: this poem can be recycled for different

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