A Poem A Day from the George Hail Library ~ Selected by Maria Horvath: The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

A Poem A Day from the George Hail Library ~ Selected by Maria Horvath: The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
Excerpt:
One of the best-known pastoral poems in English is this proposal, filled with the most extravagant of promises.

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, dale and field,
And all the craggy mountains yield.

There will we sit upon the rocks,
And see the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

There 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.

Thy silver dishes for thy meat
As precious as the gods do eat,
Shall on an ivory table be
Prepared each day for thee and me.

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.

~ Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), English Elizabethan poet and dramatist

* kirtle – tunic-like woman's garment

The poem’s fame rests in part on the fact that so many poets have been tempted to write their own replies...