Poem of the Week – The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by Christopher Marlowe
This week’s poet needs little introduction. A contemporary of William Shakespeare’s, Marlowe was an influential innovator of dramatic and poetic styles and structures. He was hailed as the foremost tragedian of the Elizabethan age and beguiled London’s large literary community with the originality of his elegant allegorical poetry.
Associated with several senior practitioners of espionage and accused of heresy and indecency by zealous critics, Marlowe played the role of the inspired wayward youth perfectly. His death has been the cause of much debate. He was stabbed to death after a day’s drinking at an inn in Deptford on the banks of the Thames in 1593. He was twenty-nine years old. Some historians believe he was assassinated by rival spies on the orders of Sir Francis Walsingham and that his violent and bloody demise confirms the claim that he was immersed in the murky world of 16th-century counter-intelligence and courtly intrigue.
This week’s poem is one of the most famous love lyrics in the English language. The Passionate Shepherd to His Love is exemplary of Renaissance pastoral poetry – effusive in feeling, florid in imagery and melodious in articulation. It provoked a myriad of poetic responses from many subsequent master poets including John Donne, William Carlos Williams and Cecil Day-Lewis, among others. We hope you enjoy this week’s poem as much as we did.
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by Christopher Marlowe
Come live with me, and be my love;
And we will all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dales 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 linèd 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 shepherd-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.