The Passionate Shepherd to His Love is a pastoral poem by Christopher Marlowe, in which a shepherd invites his beloved to live with him in the countryside among flowers and songs. Published after his death, in 1599 and 1600, it became one of the most imitated and answered poems of the English Renaissance.
The poem
In six short stanzas of rhyming couplets, the shepherd promises his love the pleasures of the fields: beds of roses, a cap of flowers, a gown of the finest wool, slippers with gold buckles and the songs of shepherd boys in May.
It belongs to the pastoral tradition that goes back to the Greek poet Theocritus and to Virgil, in which an idealised countryside is a place of love and leisure.
Publication
The poem circulated in manuscript before being printed, incomplete and without the author's name, in the collection The Passionate Pilgrim (1599), attributed on its title page to Shakespeare.
A full version, signed 'Chr. Marlow', appeared in the anthology England's Helicon in 1600.
Answers
The most famous reply is The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd, attributed to Walter Raleigh, in which the nymph reminds the shepherd that flowers fade and seasons change.
John Donne answered in The Bait, and many later poets, from Robert Herrick to C. Day Lewis, wrote their own versions or parodies.
Anecdotes
Sung by Shakespeare's parson
In The Merry Wives of Windsor, the Welsh parson Sir Hugh Evans sings fragments of Marlowe's poem, mixed up with a psalm, while waiting nervously for a duel.
Izaak Walton's milkmaid
In The Compleat Angler (1653), Izaak Walton has a milkmaid sing Marlowe's poem and her mother sing Raleigh's reply.
Frequently asked questions
Who wrote The Passionate Shepherd to His Love?
Christopher Marlowe, though it was first printed without his name, in a collection attributed to Shakespeare.
What is The Nymph's Reply?
A poem attributed to Walter Raleigh answering Marlowe's, in which the nymph refuses the shepherd's offer because pleasures and youth do not last.
When was the poem published?
Incomplete in 1599 in The Passionate Pilgrim, and complete in England's Helicon in 1600.