CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE'S POEM - THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE

   

On the 28 th day and the last day of the Blog chatter’s #WRITEAPAGEADAY, Here is a poem with love as the major theme.

 

Poet:  CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE

Poem:   THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE

 

 

  Come live with me and be my love,

  And we will all the pleasures prove,

  That Valleys, groves, hills, and fields,

  Woods, or steepy mountain 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 Shepherds’ 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.

 

     The son of John and Catherine Marlowe, Marlowe was born in Canterbury, where his father was shoemaker, in 1564. He received some of his early education at The King’s School, Canterbury, and an Archbishop Parker scholarship took him from this school to Corpus Christi College in the University of Cambridge.

     In 1587 Marlowe, earned his MA from Cambridge and moved to London. For the next six years he wrote plays and associated with other writers, among them the poet Thomas Watson and the dramatist Thomas Kyd.

 

This poem "The Passionate Shepherd" was written by Marlowe in the early 1590s. It was one of the most popular and widely read poems of the English Renaissance; many poets, such as Sir Walter Ralegh, wrote responses praising, criticizing, and poking fun at it.