The Nymph's Reply to the Sheperd

Introduction

“The Nymph's Reply to the Sheperd” is a very popular poem and it is a poem presented in a response to Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love." Out of the many answers and imitations Marlowe has poem provoked.

Characters: One of the characters in the poem is shepherd, which is another poem to the person from whom this poem was written addressed. The shepherd wants the love of the nymph. The nymph is very critical and has argued about how they love about these promises of the shepherd thinks.

Point of view: The point of view is quite separate, but a simple one in this poem. It is a reply to an earlier poem written from the viewpoint of the other nymph to whom this poem was directed.

Theme: The theme of the poem is love.

Style: It is a classic style poem, written in old English.

Discussion

"The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd" is the most celebrated poems. The two poems appearing together from their earliest printings. The full texts of both poems were first published in the collection England's Helicon (1599), where "The Nymph's Reply" was signed "Ignoto," or anonymous. Not until more than half a century later do we find an attribution to Sir Walter Raleigh, in The Compleat Angler by Izaak Walton (1653). We do not know what evidence Walton was using, and some scholars see no compelling reason to assume Raleigh wrote the poem, grouping it instead with the many lyrics spuriously credited to the famous courtier during and after his lifetime.

Other readers hear in the nymph's voice a distinctive blend of feisty wit and dark realism characteristic of Raleigh's poetry. This nymph, or maiden, is no easy mark for the shepherd's attempts to persuade her to "live with [him], and ...