The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

Introduction—Author Read the poem Paraphrase Pastoral poem Vocabulary Diction Structure analysis Imagery Speaker, listener Tone Conclusion Reflection

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

Christopher Marlowe

The Author Christopher Marlowe

1. 1564–1593 (about 29 years old)2. He was an English dramatist and poet. Probably the great

est English dramatist before Shakespeare.3. Education: Marlowe was educated at Cambridge and he w

ent to London in 1587, where he became an actor and dramatist for the Lord Admiral's Company.

4. Plays: His most important plays are the two parts of Tamburlaine the Great (c. 1587), Dr. Faustus (c. 1588), The Jew of Malta (c. 1589), and Edward II (c. 1592).

5. Marlowe's dramas: his dreams have heroic themes, usually centering on a great personality who is destroyed by his own passion and ambition.

6. The use of the language: The poetic beauty and dignity of his language raise them to the level of high art.

7. Marlowe death: In 1593, Marlowe was stabbed in a barroom brawl by a drinking companion.

Paraphrase

Come live with me and be my love. We will try all the pleasure offered by valleys, roves, woods and mountains.

I want us to sit upon the rocks with shallow rivers falling under our feet, seeing those shepherds far away feeding their sheep, and hearing birds sing beautifully around us.

And I will use roses to make beds decorated with a thousand sweet-smelling posies for you to lie. I will weave a flower cap, and make you kirtle fringed with myrtle leaves.

We pull out of the finest wool from our lambs to make a pretty gown. And a pair of high-qualited slippers will be made for you, to keep you from being cold. On the slippers I will put buckles, which was made of purest gold.

Also, I will make you a belt of straw and ivy buds with coral clasps and amber studs. If these pleasure may touch your heart, come live with me and be my love.

The young shepherd shall dance and sing in each May morning to delight you, and if you may be touched by these delights, then live with me and be my love.

Pastoral Poem Definition

a poetic kind that concerns itself with simple life of country

folk and describes that life in stylized, idealized terms. Characteristics

1)The people in the pastoral poem are usually shepherds,

although they maybe be fishermen or other rustics who lead

an outdoor life and are involved in tending to basic human

needs in a simplified society.

2) The world of the poem is one of simplicity, music, and

love. The world is always spring, usually May. Nature

seems endlessly green and the future entirely golden.

Difficulty, frustration, disappointment, and obligation

do not belong in this world at all; it is blissfully free of

problems.

3) Shepherds sing instead of tending sheep, and they

make love and play music instead of having to watch

out for wolves in the night.

4) Besides, the language of pastoral is informal and

fairly simple, although always a bit more

sophisticated than that of real shepherds with real

problems and real sheep.

Vocabulary—pastoral description

Grove (n.)-a small group of trees. Ex: a grove of birch trees

Madrigal / mædrgl/ (n.) a song for several singers, usually without musical instruments, popular in the 16th century

Posy (n.)- a small bunch of flowers Kirtle (n.)-to decorate fabric with a pattern of stitches us

ually using colored thread: Ex: an embroidered blouse Shepherd (n.) - a person whose job is to take care of sh

eep. Myrtle / m3 tl; AmE m3 rtl/ noun [U, C] a bush with shin

y leaves, pink or white flowers and bluish-black berries

. Lined (n.) -(of clothes) having a lining (a layer of material used t

o cover the inside surface of sth.: a pair of leather gloves with fur linings ) inside them. Ex: a lined skirt

Buckle-(n.) a piece of metal or plastic used for joining the ends of a belt or for fastening a strap on a bag, shoe, etc

Bud (PLANT PART) noun [C]-a small part of a plant, that develops into a flower or leaf

Coral (n.) [U]- a rock-like substance, formed in the sea by groups of particular types of small animal, that is often used in jewelry

Clasp (v.) [T] - to hold someone or something firmly in your hands or arms

Amber (n.)- a hard transparent yellowish-brown substance which was formed in ancient times from the liquid of trees and is used in jewellery

Stud (JEWELLERY ) (n.)- [C]a small piece of metal jewellery that is put through a part of your body such as your ear or nose

Swain (n.)- youths

Diction

 

Roses, flowers, leaves, lambs, straw, ivy, coral (stanza 3~5)

1.) The poet uses these words to describe the pleasant environment and the happiness of the shepherd.

2.) These words which the poet chooses here are all related to natural things and this is also the style of pastoral poems.

※ Besides, there are two words Prove(line 2) and Kirtle(line 11) that the poet chooses instead of Try and Gown in order to rhyme with Love(line 1) and Myrtle(line 12).

Structure Main Idea: The shepherd makes a lot of things to send his love and in

order to show his passionate affection. The poem is divided into three parts: Ⅰ.stanza 1~stanza2 The speaker hopes his love to live with him and enjoy the

beauty of the nature. Ⅱ.stanza 3~stanza 5 The speaker makes many things to please and persuade his

love. Ⅲ.stanza 6 The speaker says that everybody welcome his love if she

comes to live with him.

Rhyme:

The poem has a special term of rhyme. Every two lines the rhyme is the same.

Repetition:

“Come live with me and be my love” (shown on stanza 1, 5, and 6, line 1)

The repetition of the sentences strengthens his passion to his love. In reader’s part, we can understand speaker’s intention much more clearly

Imagery--Functions visual image:

1.sit upon the rocks...

2.seeing the shepherds feed their flocks by shallow rivers

3.The shepherd swains shall dance and sing.

audio image: melodious birds sing madrigals Smell image: a thousand fragrant posies

The Speaker & Listener

The speaker: the passionate shepherdThe shepherd’s personality:

1)sincere:

He makes many things such as beds of roses, fragrant posies,flower cap,kirtle,gown,slippers(shown at stanza 2 and 3) to show his sincerity for his love to the lady.

2)rich:

He is not an ordinary shepherd, instead, a rich shepherd. We can find evidence at the bottom of stanza 4: “Fair lined slippers for the cold, with buckles of the purest gold.”

Tone

Sincere

In stanza 3~5, the shepherd gives the one he adores lots of things which are made by the shepherd, himself such as beds of roses, fragrant posies, a cap of flowers and a gown, slippers and a belt, and so on in order to show his sincerity to his love.

Passionate The shepherd repeats the sentence “Come live with me

and be my love” three times (stanza 1, 5, 6) with a view to expressing his passion and affections to his love.

The speaker&listener(continued)

The Listener: whom the shepherd loves.

The lady’s personality: Nature-loving & tired of city life: The shepherd offered natural scenery such as

valleys, groves, hills, fields, woods, steep mountains (stanza 1,) rocks, and rivers (stanza 2) to persuade the lady to come live with him. Our group thinks that if the lady accept the shepherd, she may be nature loving or tired of noisy city life. So that she can get away with those troublesome stuffs and really relax and enjoy her peaceful life with the shepherd.

Comparison between M & R

1.Introduction—Come live with me

2.We will see flocks, hear birds sing

3.Beds of roses, cap of flowers etc.

4.Gown, slippers 5.Belt, coral clasps, buc

kle 6. Conclusion-- Come li

ve with me…

1.NO, only if,…. 2.Winter drives the flock

s away, birds dumb 3.Flowers fade 4.Gown, shoes, belt, ca

p, kirtle, posies wither 5.They can not move m

e 6.If love/joy lasts foreve

r, yes, but…

Conclusion Through this poem, we can understand more

about the pastoral poem. The characteristics of pastoral poem are unrealistic and fanciful, and the main characters mentioned in this kind of poem are usually shepherds, sometimes fishermen. Also, the content of pastoral poem are mostly related to nature and we can find the evidences of this kind of style (such as valleys, groves, hills, fields, wood, and steepy mountain yields in the 1st stanza; rocks, flocks, rivers and birds in the 2nd stanza).

However, most parts in the poem are related

to the descriptions of the nature, but

somehow we readers can enjoy the poem by

understanding the deep affection the

shepherd wants to show. Compared with the

poem. “To His Coy Mistress,” people in 17th

century are much opener and they show their

affection more directly. From this poem, “The

Passionate Shepherd to His Love,” we can

understand the attitude of people in 16th

century express their love with a gentle and

sincere tone.

Thanks for your attention!

Thanks for Alice to provide the pictures of myrtle and clasps.

The Myrtle

Various plants of the family Myrtaceae; : a European shrub having ovate or lanceolate evergreen leaves and solitary axillary white or rosy flowers followed by black berries

Clasps = Tendrils

A portion or the whole of a leaf, stipule, or stem that is modified into a slender spirally coiling sensitive organ serving to attach a plant (as a peavine or grapevine) to its support and to assist it in climbing