The Shepard and The Nymph

The Shepherd and The Nymph Sir Walter Raleigh's "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd" is a companion poem to Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love". In "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love", a shepherd makes many promises to the female of his desire. He offers her everything within his means to provide in an attempt to woo her and convince her to come with him and be his. "The Nymph's Reply to the …

…with thee and be thy love" is the nymph's way of saying that attaining her love is impossible. In "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd", the nymph saw only the dark side of nature, the death and decay. She saw the Shepherd's personified love as being material and fickle like the changing of the seasons. The nymph did not realize that what the shepherd was offering was all that he had - his undying love.