Raleigh's "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd" is a response to Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love." Both involve a debate between a "shepherd"—a young man—and a "nymph"—the woman he is in love with. In Marlowe's poem, the shepherd tries to persuade the nymph to come away with him and live a pastoral life. In Raleigh's poem, the nymph makes her response to the shepherd.

The poems are both written in iambic tetrameter and consist of six quatrains with a regular scheme: abab in Marlowe and rhyming couplets in Raleigh. Raleigh also uses Marlowe's imagery, speaking of roses, posies, and coral clasps. Both deal centrally with pastoral mythology—the idea of the escape to a simple life in the country as an idyllic response to the pressures of sophisticated urban life.

The poems differ in that Marlowe's shepherd focuses wholly on the imagined perfections of a simple life in nature with his beloved. In his poem, the world lives in an eternal spring and summer, life is full of "Melodious birds" and beds of roses, and happy shepherd swains sing and dance in May.

In Raleigh's more ironic and realistic poem, the nymph punctures the dream by pointing out the realities that flowers fades, winter comes, and young lovers age, while roses and posies "wither." There is no perfect place of eternal spring and eternal youth. The practical nymph is unwilling to leave the security of civilization for the imagined dream of what critic Raymond Williams calls the "enameled" world of the pastoral.

The most obvious point of both comparison and contrast between these two works is that Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" is an invitation while Sir Walter Raleigh's "The Nymph's Rely to the Shepherd" is an answer to the proposal. By their very nature, then, they are both connected and nothing alike. While they both clearly reference some of the same images, both poems have different functions: one poses a question and one answers it.

Another obvious point of contrast for these poems is the speaker's tone--as well as the speakers themselves. Marlowe's speaker is a young shepherd who wants the woman he loves to marry him; Marlowe's speaker is that young woman who gives the shepherd her answer. The tone of the "passionate shepherd" is hopeful and romantic; he offers this woman everything he has which is of value (to him, anyway) and promises her a life of pastoral luxury. The tone of the "reply" is, well, not as romantic.

The shepherd highlights some things he hopes will move this woman to marry him, including these:

On the other hand, the two poems are quite similar because the "reply" is a mirror, or perhaps an older, wiser echo of the proposal poem. Notice the two quotes from the poem, above, in which the nymph repeats all of the things he said he will give her. This is true for everything in the shepherd's poem. If he mentions sitting on a rock, the reply also mentions it; if he mentions listening to madrigals, so does she. This is really the one thing they have in common, and it is quite significant. There is no mistaking that "Reply" is connected to and a direct response to "Passionate Shepherd." 

Despite their containing most of the same elements, it is the tone which most sets these two poems apart. One reflects the innocence and hopefulness of young love while the other expresses the more cynical view that shepherds do not always tell the truth and that seasons will inevitably change.