![]() It is with this line that the poet-speaker comes full circle, with the final quatrain resorting to more pastoral fantasies and finishing with a repeated “Then live with me and be my love” (24). The poet-speaker’s lavish hyperbolic musingsend with a plea for a concrete idea: “come with me, and be my love” (20). However, in the nature of carpe diem, the shepherd hopes that he and his loverwill be united in the present. The use of “we” and “our” in line 13 exemplifies the poet-speaker’s future desire that, one day, he and his love will be together. The speaker continues this list for two more quatrains, elongating some of the gifts, such as “A gown made of the finest wool / Which from our pretty lambs we pull” in lines 12 and 13, before returning to fast-paced recall, as seen with “A belt of straw and ivy buds” (17). Moreover, feminine rhyme marks the quatrain, creating a lullaby effect for the reader. While hyperbolic, the fast pace creates an illusion that the gifts are real. The comma in line 11 quickens the poem’s pace, creating the appearance that the shepherd is quickly reciting a list of various gifts. As the poet-speaker’s gifts become more outlandish, his speaking becomes markedly faster. The shepherd tells his mistress that “ …I will make thee beds of roses / And a thousand fragrant posies, / A cap of flowers, and a kirtle / Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle” (9-12). As the poem progresses, the poet-speaker’shypotheticals become hyperbolic. Thepoet-speaker’s slow speaking pattern, emphasized in theenjambment oflines 7 and, elongates thephrases of this section and hides the iambic tetrameter’s underlying tension. This tactic also ties the mistress to the serene landscape that has already been described. Promising his love that they “will sit upon the rocks, / Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks, / By shallow rivers to whose falls / Melodious birds sing madrigals,” the poet-speaker paints an idyllic picture for his mistress (5-8). In contrast to the first quatrain, the shepherd steps back in the second by speaking about simple pleasures. In conjunction with the rhythmic elements of the poem, Marlowe’s poet-speaker emphasizes the joy of living in the moment. As pastoral settings, in the Romantic tradition, are often meant toevoke the sublime (or the beautiful, which is not the same thing), the poet-speaker uses the physical features of the landscape hereto create a scene of peaceful serenity in which his love might be won over. The poet-speaker finishes this quatrain by describingthe physical setting, speaking in pastoral terms as he introduces the “valleys, groves, hills, and fields” (3). This technique helps cement the presence of carpe diem within the poem. Likewise, by speaking in iambic tetrameter, the lines flow into a fast-paced rhyme, creating a tension in the poem, as if time is of the essence. Within these lines, the shepherd uses the imperative tense to show the direness of his affections as well as vague innuendo in the word “pleasures” to create an element of sensuality. Marlowe’s poet-speaker, the shepherd, sets the poem’s sensuous and rushed tone in the first two lines, saying “Come live with me and by my love / and we will all the pleasures prove” (1-2). Ultimately, both poet-speakers focus on carpe diem as a tool to persuade their perspective lovers. In contrast, Marvell’s speaker takes a much more explicit and logical approach as he bemoans the consequences of their delayed union and urges his lover to waste no time in consummating their relationship. ![]() Marlowe’s poet-speaker focuses on an abstract pastoralist hypothetical peppered with innuendo in an attempt to gain his love’s affections. However, the speakers’ tactics diverge at this point. In both poems, the poet-speakers attempt to spur their beloveds into action through various compliments and rhythmic patterns that create a hurried tone. Christopher Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” and Andrew Marvell’s “To his Coy Mistress” offer powerful examples of sensual, carpe diem Renaissance poetry.
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