Christopher Marlow, the greatest dramatist of the 16th century. He proved his talent as a great dramatist and poet and had imprinted his ability as a literary figure. Though he was very popular as a dramatist than a poet, one can see that his poems were rich in the content as well as in their presentation. One of the best examples of his poetic genius lies in his poem, “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”, written in rural background, best suits the poetic type of the period. The poem has the feature of the age that it portrays wit and talent; the outstanding feature of 16th-century people. Though the poem was published after his death, it helped much in maintaining Marlow’s memory alive in his readers.
“The Passionate Shepherd To His Love” is poem that was written in rural setting which is believed to be originated with Theocritus in Greece during the third century B.C. The life of shepherds is symbolical of warmth and elegance. The theme of the poem also brings out a passionate love. The contentment, innocence, and romantic love are the common feature of the pastoral tradition or the poem written in the rural background and in this poem one can enjoy such a real-life situation. The calm and peaceful life of the shepherds, contrasted with the city life with worries and issues have been depicted in the poem. The speaker in the poem is a shepherd who proposes to a woman by giving many promises to win her love. He invites his beloved with passion, “Come live with me, and be my love” (Marlow, line 1). The ‘passionate’ in the title of the poem itself is suggestive of its theme that the shepherd’s love is purely physical. The reader understands that his love and promises are only imaginary which he can never attain or provide in his real life. The poem is static in the sense that it brings no history or future. The poem shows a calm nature during the month of May in a countryside where many shepherds enjoy themselves with their pair. Here a shepherd feels love while he enjoys the beauty of the nature. His material love makes him proposing the woman to live with him. The shepherd giving many promises to his pair to get her love which he cannot ever do actually in his life. He is not bothered about the future while he offers many promises. He is not sure whether he is capable of giving all these guarantees but he cannot do because he is not ready to marry her. Readers do not hear the woman as she hides behind the curtain of his desire and the overt sexuality has expressed in different lines of the poem. It is evident when the shepherd invites his beloved to make love in, ‘Valleys, groves, hills and fields, / Woods, or steep mountains’ (Marlow, line 3-5).
Marlow draws the picture of an idealized nature in his poem “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love,” Poet uses idealized world as a unique theme in his poem. The narrator uses the tone which reveals excessive passion, eagerness, wanting and absolutely fanciful. He avoids hardships and sufferings. The lover tries to offer an idealized and simplified world of imagination. Through the character of the shepherd the poet explores the idea that in the world of imagination there are no responsibilities and the shepherd visualizes the lovers will watch other shepherds feed their flocks. Here the reader can see the shepherd never show his willingness to feed on his flocks. In the last stanza the shepherd offers his last opportunity to ensure the deal and forces her for sexual enjoyment. Normally the life of a shepherd is filled with handwork and suffering. Here the shepherd expresses his willingness to dance and sings with his lady love. Poet expresses shepherd’s promise through the following lines, “The shepherd swains shall dance and sing / for thy delight each May morning.” (Marlow, pp. 21-22). The shepherd is not conscious about feeding his wife. A kind of escapism from the trials and tribulations of earthly life can see these lines. The phrase “bed of roses” hints at the presence of thorns which makes disturbance for the couple.
The poet has resorted to carpe diem or ‘seize the day, which allows people to enjoy without the worries of the future. The poem is thematically simple and one gets the picture of a rural setting with the joy of a springtime love. One of the notable features regarding the poem is that it deviates from the traditional pastoral poems/poems written in rural backgrounds which portray shepherds in isolation, engaging in romantic love; here one can see material love with the insertion of a woman into the scene and their lovemaking in the background of flocks and peacefulness of country life. Idealized nature, as the other theme of the poem reveals the mentality of the shepherd as his only intention is to enjoy physical pleasure. Static as the other theme of the poem refers to life without the worries over the future. To conclude, one can infer that Marlow’s poem is thematically rich though simple in presentation.