Comparative Poetry

[Adam Ricardo]

Comparing and contrasting two poems: “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” by Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) and “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” by Sir Walter Ralegh (1552-1618).

Christopher Marlowe was born in 1564 and died in 1593 at the age of twenty-nine. He is one of the famous Elizabethan poets and dramatists during the sixteen century in England. In a playwriting career that spanned little more than six years, Marlow’s achievements were diverse and splendid. He was educated at the King’s school, Canterbury and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and became a BA in 1584, and MA in 1587. Maybe, before leaving Cambridge he had already written the two-part TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT (1590). Nearly certainly during his later Cambridge years, he had translated Ovid’s Elegies and the first book of LUCAN’S PHARSALIA from the Latin. About this time he also wrote the play DIDO, QUEEN of CARTHAGE (1594; with Thomas Nashe). With the production of TAMBURLAINE, the only play of his to be published in his lifetime, he received recognition and acclaim, and playwriting became his major concern in the few years that lay ahead. His poem HERO AND LEANDER- it is almost certainly the finest non-dramatic Elizabethan poem apart from those produced by Edmund Spenser- was incomplete at his death and was extended by George Chapman; the joint work of the two poets was published in 1598. I can imagine what Marlowe would write in the majority of his poems even I have not seen the other poems written by him, but by only looking at his background. Romanticism is mainly the theme of his poems I guess. According to my experience, a young, rich, and high-educated talented poet will become a romanticist. Only such type of a person will put a premium on creative function of the imagination, seeing art as a formulation of intuitive imaginative perceptions that tend to speak a nobler truth that of fact and logic. Love is the main theme of a romanticist. A romanticist presents life as more picturesque, more adventurous, and more heroic than the actual. On the contrary, Sir Walter Ralegh should be a typical example of a realist who accept the facts and reject the sentiment and illusion. He was born in 1552 and after grown up, he studied in oriel college, Oxford only around one year. He spent four years as volunteer with the Huguenot forces in France, being present at the battle of Montcontour in 1569. Throughout the 1580s, he seemed to have enjoyed royal favour. It is as a great Elizabethan, a representative of a remarkable period in English history and English literature, that Ralegh merits so much attention. He was an arrogant, rash over-pround adventurer in a world in which such men could prosper. Unfortunately, he married Elizabeth Throckmorton, one of the maids of honour of Queen Elizabeth, without Queen’s permission, led to a period of imprisonment in the summer of 1592. When James I, reigned over Great Britain, Ralegh was charged of high treason. In the Tower, he began to write A History of the World, which was intended to be a book for everyone, not merely scholars. In 1614, he published the first part, a large folio volume that began with the creation and reached the fall of Macedon and the growing power of Rome. It is famous for its clear strong English prose and the scrupulous acknowledgment of the authors he studied. No less than 13 editions appeared in the 17th century. Although he was released to search out the gold mine he claimed to have discovered in Guiana 20 years before, he was executed in 1618 at last. With reference to his background, I can imagine what Ralegh would write in the majority of his poem: Realism is mainly the theme of his poems I guess. According to what I have come across, a person who has met many unpleasant experiences in his life will hardly become a romanticist who will believe in romanticism. Realism is opposed to Romanticism. Realism presents an accurate picture of life as it is. Realist is deliberately selective in his material and prefers the commonplace and everyday over-rarer aspects of the contemporary scene. His characters are usually of the middle class or working class; people who live through ordinary life and will find life rather unhappy and dull, though it may be brightened by touches or joy and beauty. “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” is his answer to Marlow’s “The Passionate Shepherd to his Love”.

In the following paragraphs, I shall first explore the contents of the two poems, then the technical writing skills, which are normally used in poetry, and finally I will argue what my subjective inspiration from two poems is.

“The passionate shepherd to his love” is a pastoral poem. In literature, a “ pastoral poem” was originally about “Shepherds”, but the term has been extended to cover all works that deal with rural life. It can be about expressing an urban poet’s nostalgic image of the golden peace and simplicity of a pastoral existence, or it involves a shepherd meditating the rural muse, or engages in a friendly singing contest, or laments hiss ill fortune with a beautiful but unresponsive mistress. In the poem, the persona tries to attract his lover to come and live with him by showing her a beautiful scenery where there are fields, mountains, May morning rivers, singing birds, flowers, pretty lambs as well as dancing shepherds and beautiful ornaments. The shepherd with lambs in beautiful scenery is clearly a romantic adventure- the process to woo a girl. On the contrary, “The nymph’s reply to the shepherd” pours cold water on shepherd’s enthusiasm. In the first stanza, Nymph has already set a conditional sentence: “If all the world and love were young and truth in every shepherd’s tongue, these pretty pleasures might move her to accept his love”. Clearly, it is impossible for such a condition to fulfill. The persona tells the shepherd that time and tide wait for nobody: Flowers will wither; Clothes will fade; Ornaments may bleak and so may love. The wonderful family life and romantic future will not ever lasting. This is a typical example of realism. As a man, why Sir Walter Ralegh writes such a cynical poem about love is crystal clear if you read his background of his life. I do believe that Ralegh has been a romantic poet or at least he has had a potential to become a romantic poet. He led to a period of imprisonment because of his marrying Elizabeth Throckmorton. He has sacrificed himself to the marriage. No matter who has such life experience as Sir Walter Ralegh has, one will write the same cynical poem to reply the poet who is young, rich, naïve and only looking for short term pleasure without considering consequences.

When it comes to the analysis of poetry, technical skill of writing is a must, no matter from Edmund Spenser or William Shakespeare in sixteen century to W.B. Yeats or W.H. Auden in twenty century. They would more or less use some techniques such as paradox as well as imagery. Let me look into both poems to see whether writing techniques are used or not.

“From The Passionate Shepherd To His Love”, in the first stanza, visual imagery is used. “Valleys”, “Groves”, “Hills”, “Fields”, “Woods”, and “Steep mountain” combine to form a pleasant outskirts of romantic home. In addition, the beautiful moving picture carries on in second and third stanzas. Not only do the “Rocks”, “Shepherds”, “Flocks”, “Falling water” “Singing bird”, “Beds of Roses”, “Leaves of Myrtle” form a beautiful picture, but also they give us a sense of smell (Olfactory), a sense of hear (Auditory), a sense of touch (Tactile). How fragrant are the roses. How wonderful are signing bird. How energetic is the falling water. All the mentioned elements are very positive imagery. Unfortunately, most of the love story in real world is almost the same- love will be tortured by reality. Therefore, all the elements in the beautiful moving picture in “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” become old and deadly scenery in “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd”, “Time drives the flocks” (Kinesthetic), “Rivers rage” (Auditory), “Rocks grow cold” (Thermal), “Philomel becometh dumb” (Auditory), “The flowers fade” (Visual), “Wanton fields” (Visual) “Heart of gall” (Gustatory) and “Sorrow’s fall” (Visual and feeling) combine to form a solitary outskirts of realistic home. All imageries are extremely negative. A picture of romance is completely destroyed by reality. How cruel the reality is! How sorrowful the shepherd feels!

There is no paradox at all in “ The passionate Shepherd To His Love”, but Ralegh uses a paradox in “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd”. In third stanza, “a honey tongue, a heart of gall” is a paradox: Honey represents sweet while gall represents bitter. It seems that it is impossible for a man to have sweet tongue but at the same time to have a bitter heart. It can actually be reconciled. A man speaks sweet words to a girl but in fact words are just lies. From this paradox, Nymph shows her disapproval of shepherd’s sayings. It is a negative response.

After studying these two poems, I was inspired to remember a novel “Sense and Sensibility” written by Jane Austen. In the novel, Austen seems to mock Marianne Dashwood as a heroine of sensibility form sentimental fiction and exposing her correspondence to the comments of her sensible sister Elinor, who would give her sound advice on controlling her feelings. What I feel is that Austen does not really show disapproval of “Sensibility” (or Romanticism) nor does agree with “Sense” (or Realism). Marianne has nearly lost her life because of great depression given by Willoughby, her lover but Elinor has almost missed a good marriage because of her unnecessary “Sense”. Austen did not show a clear clue that “Sense” or “Sensibility” is the domination at the end of the story. For the same logic, I do not think that Realism or Romanticism is the domination at the end of the day. They are not necessarily against each other. In fact, they can coexist. It depends on how you handle them. The only thing I should like to ask those readers whether Sir Walter Ralegh would still marry Elizabeth Throckmorton if he had known he would have been sent to prison by Queen Elizabethan, the Queen of England, the highest authority in his country. If the answer is yes, love still defeats realism. If the answer is no, realism really defeats romanticism. This thoughtful question should be left to you at the end of my paper.

In conclusion, I have already compared the two poems: I have given the rather detail historical background of both poets. I have explained what a pastoral poem is in literature. Contrasting the technical skills in poetry, I have found that the former poem has used some positive imageries but the latter poem has used nearly complementary negative imageries. Last, I have used “Sense and Sensibility” to compare with both poems. “Sense” and “Sensibility are similar terms as “Realism and Romanticism”. They are complementary elements rather than contradictory enemies, which one is domination has not finalized in my paper. It is the responsibility of those readers to contemplate.

26th July 2004