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Poem of the Day: Marlowe's Shepherd and Co., Day 2: "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd"

By Beechwood 45789 (Tue Jun 24, 2008 at 07:04:34 AM EST) (all tags)

"In folly ripe, in reason rotten."

The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd
by Sir Walter Raleigh

If all the world and love were young,
And truth in every shepherd's tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move
To live with thee and be thy love.

Time drives the flocks from field to fold,
When rivers rage and rocks grow cold;
And Philomel becometh dumb;
The rest complain of cares to come.

The flowers do fade, and wanton fields
To wayward winter reckoning yields;
A honey tongue, a heart of gall,
Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall.

Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy bed of roses,
Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies,
Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten,
In folly ripe, in reason rotten.

Thy belt of straw and ivy buds,
Thy coral clasps and amber studs,
All these in me no means can move
To come to thee and be thy love.

But could youth last and love still breed,
Had joys no date nor age no need,
Then these delights my mind might move
To live with thee and be thy love.

< No means No.... | on twisting and turning >

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Poem of the Day: Marlowe's Shepherd and Co., Day 2: "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd" | 10 comments (10 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback

Hmmm by Breaker (2.00 / 0) #1 Tue Jun 24, 2008 at 07:27:07 AM EST

Not too sure about the move / love rhyme there. Amazing Raleigh found time to write poetry when he wasn't off privateering Spanish vessels and finding potatoes.

or smoking tobaccky by sasquatchan (2.00 / 0) #2 Tue Jun 24, 2008 at 09:13:32 AM EST

[ Parent ]

I've often wondered about that. by Beechwood 45789 (4.00 / 1) #3 Tue Jun 24, 2008 at 10:32:47 AM EST

Is there some accent I'm unaware of that makes that work?

It could, of course, just be a clumsy rhyme.

Sometimes I entertain the idea that it is purposefully a bad fit - a sort of jarring contrast to "everything will be awesome" fantasy of the shepherd. It's a clever way of showing, without saying, "This doesn't work." But that might just be projection on my part.

[ Parent ]

Not as far as I'm aware by Breaker (4.00 / 1) #4 Tue Jun 24, 2008 at 11:20:22 AM EST

Although my pronunciation of Elizabethan English is quite probably non-existant.

You either have to twist the "move" (moov) into "muv" or the "love" (luv) into "loov"; neither of which really works.

Perhaps having same word endings but with different pronunciations was a popular poetic device at the time? This was after all Elizabethan Englandland, when people wore arsenic on their faces and ruffs around their necks. I wouldn't put it past them to have some strange literary constructs while they're at it.

It's not clumsy rhyme by johnny (2.00 / 0) #5 Tue Jun 24, 2008 at 03:11:37 PM EST

it's "soft" rhyme.

The poems of Emily Dickinson are full of it. It makes them very subtle and weird, almost what you expect but not quite, like rollerskating without any arms.
Buy my books, dammit!
[ Parent ]

Clumsy. by Beechwood 45789 (4.00 / 1) #6 Tue Jun 24, 2008 at 05:04:12 PM EST

I'm familiar with soft rhymes. That's not really my issue.

My issue is that this particular poem it is not full of "soft" rhymes. There's just that one word pairing that sticks out every time it appears. I find it about as subtle here as a tarantula on a wedding cake (to borrow a phrase) and the surprise is undermined by the fact that he uses the same effect three times. So the don't buy that it is meant to add some curious or defamiliarizing element to the work. I find it neither subtle (as it is the poetic equivalent of a speed bump) nor weird (it is too clearly intentional and repetitious to be uncanny).

That's what I calling clumsy: the jarring effect.

In fact, the more I think about it, the more I feel it is meant to "klang" on the ear, producing the opposite of the shepherd's polished (too polished for the conceit that it comes from some rude and natural shepherd) seduction.

It's clumsy and meant to be so, I feel.

[ Parent ]

Point granted by johnny (2.00 / 0) #7 Tue Jun 24, 2008 at 07:47:15 PM EST

& I figured that you of course were familiar with the term & concept. You obviously are a close reader of poetry. I shoulda kept my mouf shut.

Might I suggest for future consideration:

Emily Dickinson
Richard Wilbur
Virginia Hamilton Adair
Kenneth Patchen
Howard Nemerov
Kenneth Koch
Theodor Roethke
Marianne Moore
Buy my books, dammit!
[ Parent ]

: Suggestions noted. by Beechwood 45789 (2.00 / 0) #8 Wed Jun 25, 2008 at 07:45:14 AM EST

I don't believe I'm familiar with Adair or Nemerov. Thanks.

[ Parent ]

Eh? by Scrymarch (4.00 / 1) #9 Wed Jun 25, 2008 at 10:54:31 AM EST

It's a deliberate mirror of the first couplet in Marlowe's poem.

Come live with me and be my Love,
And we will all the pleasures prove

Prove <-> move, in every English accent I can think of excepting maybe some wacky north of England sorts. I guess Elizabethan gentlemen of letters could have all been speaking like Geoffrey Boycott, but it would be a particularly cruel historical joke.
_{The Political Science Department of the University of Woolloomooloo}
[ Parent ]

: Hm. I may have to take back what I've said. by Beechwood 45789 (4.00 / 1) #10 Wed Jun 25, 2008 at 11:53:00 AM EST

Which is a shame, 'cause it sounded so right to me.

[ Parent ]

Poem of the Day: Marlowe's Shepherd and Co., Day 2: "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd" | 10 comments (10 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback