The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd

The Nymph’s

Reply To The

ShepherdBy: Sir Walter Raleigh

If all the world and love were

young,And truth in every

shepherd's tongue,

These pretty pleasures might

me moveTo live with thee and be thy love.

Time drives the flocks from field to

foldWhen rivers rage and rocks grow

cold,And Philomel

becometh dumb;The rest complains of cares to come.

The flowers do fade, and wanton

fieldsTo wayward

winter reckoning yields;

A honey tongue, a heart of gall,

Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall.

Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of

roses,Thy cap, thy kirtle,

and thy posiesSoon break, soon

wither, soon forgotten

In folly ripe, in season rotten.

Thy belt of straw and ivy buds,

Thy coral clasps and amber studs,All these in me no means can moveTo 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 moveTo live with thee and be thy love.

The poem discusses the reality

of the shepherd’s situation.

Pastoral Poem

REALity is the PRIORITY

Work in pairs and look for

lines in the poem that shows this

Not everything in nature is

perfect

“rocks grow

cold” (6)

“The flowers do fade, and wanton

fieldsTo wayward

winter reckoning yields” (9-10)

“Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses,

Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies,

Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten,

In folly ripe, in reason rotten.” (13-16)

Nymph reverses his images into negative

ones…that hills and

valleys, dale and

field…

fields yield to the harve

st

Nymph reverses his images into negative

ones

…sit upon the

rocks

rocks grow cold

Nymph reverses his images into negative

onesAnd see

the shepherds feed

their flocks,

Flocks are

driven to fold

in winter

Nymph reverses his images into negative

onesBy

shallow rivers,

to whose falls

Rivers rage

Nymph reverses his images into negative

onesMelodious birds sing

madrigals.

Birds complai

n of winter

Carpe diem:Seize the day!

Tempus fugit:Time flies.

Settingtakes place in a

realistic landscape

Imagery

Visual imagery dominates the

poem particularly

that of nature

Figures of Speech

Task: Identify the figures of

speech found in the poem.

King Tereus,

Procne’s husband, agreed to accompan

y Philomela to Athens

Tereus raped

Philomela and cut out her tongue

Philomela wove a tapestry

(or a robe) that told her story

Philo-mela sent the

robe to Procne

Procne killed her son Itys

and served it to Tereus

Tereus wanted to kill them but the gods

turned them into

birds

Figures of Speech

Metaphor

A honey tongue, a

heart of gall,Is fancy's

spring, but sorrow's fall.(stanza 3, lines

3-4)

Tone and Mood

First word in the poem is

“if”

if suggests that the shepherd’s

promises are only transitory

SOUND DEVICES

Task:Identify the

sound devices found in the

poem.