Christopher Marlowe, The Passionate Shepherd to his Love

Lisa Hopkins (Sheffield Hallam University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.03: English Writing and Culture: Renaissance (Elizabethan and Jacobean periods) , 1485-1625.
Vol. editors: William M. Hamlin (Washington State University), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University), Ema Vyroubalova (Trinity College Dublin)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1599

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Pastoral
Poetry (any)

Resources

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In 1599 a four-stanza version of an anonymously printed poem entitled “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” appeared in a collection of poetry called

The Passionate Pilgrim

. The next year, another anthology called

England's Helicon

printed a version with two further stanzas and an ascription to 'Chr. Marlow'. Thus was born a legend. Although the poem was short, it proved both immensely popular and immensely influential. It gave rise to numerous responses, the most famous of which is Sir Walter Ralegh's “The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd”, and it has been, and continues to be, extensively anthologised and imitated. (Lawrence Ferlinghetti wrote a fine response in the 1960s entitled “Come lie with me and be my love” C. Day Lewis wrote a more whimiscal one in the 1930s )

The

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481 words

Citation: Hopkins, Lisa. "The Passionate Shepherd to his Love". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 January 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7349, accessed 24 November 2024.]

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Christopher Marlowe, The Passionate Shepherd to his Love

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