Love and Devotion

Passion, love, and devotion are all found within the lines of Christopher Marlowe’s poem, “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” where a man expresses his love to a woman, hoping she will be with him forever. These forms of affection can be shown in many different ways. For example, some people show their love through their words; they can express their feelings in a way that makes their lover feel so special and adored. Other people are best at showing their love through their actions and what they do for each other. The man in this poem uses both his words and actions to persuade the one he loves.

Upon first reading this poem, I had a strong sense of love for this person to whom the man was speaking. Throughout the twenty-eight lines of the poem, the man is clearly very passionate about this other person that he expressing his devotion to saying, “Come live with me and be my love” (Marlowe 1). He is tells his love that he wants to just sit on the rocks with her and watch the shepherds feed their flock. He would make her slippers to keep her warm. He would even have his swains dance and sing for her every morning. The fact that he is not asking this person to be with him throughout the poem but instead simply stating the facts of how beautiful their life could be, makes me feel like the author is very certain of his feelings and knows what or who he wants. Love is not a question for this man; It is already there and it is up to this other person to decide whether they will or won’t be with them. I found the whole thing to be very romantic and persuasive but not in a bad way. I myself being a single man looking for love was able to connect even more to this poem.

Marlowe’s use of romantic imagery made it very easy to follow. “There I will make the beds of roses and a thousand fragrant posies”(Marlowe 910). To visualize the strong passion in the poem and to see just what all someone would do to be with another forever was very beautiful but at the same time it made me hungry for that same passion. I have been in situations before where I loved somebody so much that I would do anything for them, make anything for them, and spend my whole day just sitting with them in hopes that they would want to spend the rest of our lives together. Unfortunately, things don’t always go the way we want them to and for some, the hunt goes on. In the case of this poem there was no tension, just a romantic, loving tone. Luckily, it doesn’t reveal the lover’s response to the man’s intentions. The ending was left open and we the readers are free to imagine our own happy ending.

The title of this poem, “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”