“The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd”

“The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” - Sir Walter Raleigh.

Hello friends,

I would like to share a poem “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” by Sir Walter Raleigh. I studied this poem during my graduation.

Sir Walter Raleigh was an English landed gentleman, writer, poet, soldier, politician, courtier, spy and explorer. Raleigh was one of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era.

Before knowing something about this poem, it is necessary to read the poem “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” by Christopher Marlowe.
Sir Walter Raleigh wrote this poem as a reply to Christopher Marlowe's poem, “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”. Let us see both the poems together.

In Marlowe's poem, the shepherd flatters his love by making promises of an ideal life and all sorts of material things and advantages.

In this poem the nymph replies the shepherd. This reply is somewhat harsh that the shepherd doesn’t want to hear. According to her love is not permanent. She doesn’t trust him and she rejects the shepherd. She explains the shepherd’s poem line by line and explains that whatever he wants to do for her will either die or change with time. What the nymph needs is something permanent, something that exceeds the periodic nature of things.

She ends the poem by saying that she cannot be moved to love him no matter what he promises her or says to her. In the last stanza, she concludes this way:

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.

The nymph therefore rejects the shepherd's appeal. She desires things which are impossible to achieve. Her wishes are not realistic. Nothing is permanent, and if you wait for these unrealistic wishes to come true then you miss the moment of happiness that is in front of you. By rejecting Shepherd’s love somewhere she is closing the door of happiness in getting permanent happiness that is again impossible.

References:-

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/44939

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/44675

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Raleigh

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