Sample+Work+and+Analysis+of+Themes,+Symbols+and+Style


 * The Passionate Shepherd to His Love ||


 * COME live with me and be my Love, || ||
 * And we will all the pleasures prove || ||
 * That hills and valleys, dales and fields, || ||
 * Or woods or steepy mountain yields. || ||
 * And we will sit upon the rocks, || ||
 * And see 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 || ||
 * Embroider'd 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. ||
 * 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. ||
 * Then live with me and be my Love. ||

 Summary: 

===In the first stanza of “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love,” Marlowe’s speaker, an unidentified shepherd, pleads with an unidentified woman that if she will come and live with him, then all pleasures will be theirs for the taking. The shepherd opens with the invitation: “Come live with me, and be my love.” He is not asking her to marry him but only to live with him. The offer is simply put, and his ease in offering it implies that the woman should just as easily agree.===

===The second stanza suggests a time of year for the lovers' activity, which is likely spring or summer, since they would be outdoors and the shepherd imagines it is pleasant enough to sit and watch the flocks being fed. He proposes that other shepherds will feed his flocks, since with his mistress by his side, he will now be an observer. The shepherd mentions listening to the "Melodious birds sing madrigals." The singing of birds is often suggestive of spring, since the return of singing birds signals the advent of the new season===

===In the third stanza, the shepherd offers the first of many promises he will keep if the woman agrees to come and live with him. He promises to make her "beds of roses." One bed is not enough; she is deserving of more than one bed, although certainly the couple would have no need for more than one bed.===

===In the fourth stanza, the shepherd continues his promises to clothe the woman. Her "gown" would be made of the "finest wool." Rather than simply shearing the sheep, which was the common procedure, the shepherd would "pull" the wool from the "pretty lambs." This image transforms the intense hard labor of shearing into a gentle "pulling" of the wool, a more graceful and romantic activity. The "slippers" he will make for the woman will be "fair lined." By the sixteenth century, women were commonly referred to as the "fair sex," and so the use of "fair" to describe the slippers might also refer to the woman whose feet the slippers would adorn. The buckles of these slippers would be of "the purest gold," since the shepherd's mistress would deserve all the riches he could provide.===

 ===the fifth stanza, an image of the shepherd's newly adorned mistress begins to emerge. Line 17 adds a straw belt and "ivy-buds" to a costume that is adorned with "coral clasps" and "amber studs," which serve as buttons. The woman is dressed from head to foot and immersed in "posies." If the woman takes the poet's promises quite literally, she would look like a huge floral bush that glitters with gold, coral, and amber. In the final two lines of the fifth stanza, the shepherd reiterates his plea that the woman consider his offer. He first reminds the woman that he promises her pleasures, which he hopes will convince her to agree to his wishes.===

===In the sixth and final stanza, the shepherd uses one last opportunity to seal the deal and convince the woman to give up her chastity to his entreaties. If the woman will agree to be his love, the shepherd promises his "swains" shall dance and sing. "Swain" was a common word for shepherd, and in the sixteenth century, the two words were used interchangeably to create a more favorable image of shepherds. The shepherd's life was one of hard work, and describing him as a swain, which might also refer to a gallant lover, conjures a more romantic image.===

