Similarities Between The Passionate Shepherd To His Love And Raleigh Was Right

The three poems, “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”, “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd”, and “Raleigh was Right”, all develop a shared central idea. Although the speakers of these poems may have different thoughts on the subjects, all of these poems focus on the ideas of love, peace, and nature.

The three poems all focus on the idea of love. In “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”, the Shepherd is explaining all of the ways he can please his love. He says he will make her “a gown made of the finest wool”, and he tells her of many other valuable things he can give her in hopes that she will love him back. In “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd”, the Nymph is focusing on the idea that love is not pure anymore. She states, “If all the world and love were young”, which implies that love is no longer young. In “Raleigh Was Right”, the speaker also believes that love is dying. He says, “love itself a flower with roots in a parched ground.” Love is one of the main focuses of these three poems.

The poems also focus on the topic of nature.

For example, the Shepherd tells the Nymph of the “hills and valleys” and the “craggy mountains” to describe his home to her. The Nymph says, “flowers do fade, and wanton fields” to explain that she does not want to live with him. In “Raleigh Was Right”, the speaker talks about “lance shaped leaves”, and “small violets” to explain the setting of the country. The authors of all three poems incorporate nature into their writing to help describe the setting and plot of the

stories.

The poems are further developed when the authors include the concept of peace, and integrate it into the main storyline. For instance, when the Shepherd is talking to his love, he speaks of things that bring peace to the mind, like watching shepherds “feed their flocks”, and sitting on rocks by “shallow rivers”. Also, when the Nymph replies to the shepherd, she focuses on the idea of peace dying out with time. She says, “time drives the flocks from field to fold”, implying that, when winter comes, the sheep will return to their pens and will no longer be seen. In “Raleigh Was Right”, the speaker also focuses on the idea that peace is dying; he says, “we cannot go into the country for it brings us no peace”. By incorporating peace into the poems, all three authors develop the storyline of their writing more fully.

The authors of “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”, “The Nymph’s reply to the Shepherd”, and “Raleigh Was Right”, all develop their poems around the central ideas of love, peace, and nature.