The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd

by Sir Walter Raleigh (1552 - 1618)

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.

About this poem :

"The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd" is Sir Walter Raleigh's poem of compassionate rejection in response to Christopher Marlowe's poem "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love". The reasons the nymph gives for her rejection are just excuses; her real reason for turning the shepherd down is her lack of love for him.

Christoper Marlowe's poem "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" could also be found on this blog under "Poems : Classic(M - R)".