be devoid of true passion.

A honey tongue, a heart of gall,
Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall,

The nymph rejects each of the shepherd's promises and emphasises the transient nature of all that he mentions. None of the promised delights he mentions are permanent and all are bound to die, fade away or lose their value over time.

What the nymph needs is something permanent, greater than the transitory, something that transcends the periodic nature of things. In her reply she states:

But could youth last and love still breed,
Had joys no date nor age no need,
Then these delights my mind might move
To live with thee and be thy love.

The nymph therefore rejects the shepherd's appeal. She desires things which, one may believe, are impossible to attain: (ever)lasting youth, a regenerative love, permanent, timeless and inconsequential joy. However, although her request may seem paradoxical, her wish is not an unrealistic one. She seeks true happiness throughout her lifetime, i.e. her desire is that these qualities should endure during her stay on earth with the shepherd as her companion, and this is a promise he does not, or is unwilling, to make. 

Walter Raleigh wrote the poem "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd" in 1596, in response to the 1593 poem written by Christopher Marlowe entitled "The Passionate Shepherd to his Love."

In order to understand the themes of this poem, it's necessary to have a background in the history and customs of the time. Elizabeth I was on the throne of England during the time both poems were written. She revived the medieval custom of courtly love. Courtly love involved a man pouring out his passionate and unending love for a woman, who would respond with rebuffs and often disgust. It became a game of cat and mouse and created a tension in the relationship that was culturally acceptable.

It was extremely important during this time in history for a woman to maintain her purity until marriage. For this reason, no respectable woman could have seriously entertained the shepherd's proposal in Christopher Marlowe's poem, since he promises nothing of marriage and its requisite dignity, only love and passion.

Raleigh's response to Marlowe's poem takes the perspective of a woman who is following the rules of courtly love. She is also noting the fleeting manner of young love. All the things that the shepherd is promising only last for a season and then are gone. She implies that the shepherd is not truthful in what he promises or that he doesn't truly understand what it is that he is promising. Therefore, one of the themes is that love (or passion) without truth is not worth pursuing. Consider the nymph's reply in the first two stanzas of the poem:

"If all the world and love were young, and truth in every shepherd's tongue, these pretty pleasures might me move to live with thee and be thy love.

But time drives flocks from field to fold, when rivers rage and rocks grow cold, and Philomel becometh dumb; the rest complain of cares to come."

When the nymph says in the first stanza that if love stayed young, maybe she would be moved by the shepherd's words. But youthful love doesn't last any longer than the seasons, so she will not accept his proposal. In the second stanza, she talks about time driving flocks from the field to the fold when rivers rage, like they do in springtime with the melting of the snow. And rocks grow cold in winter time, another reference to changing seasons. Philomela is alluded to in this stanza. Philomela was a character from Greek mythology who, as recorded by Ovid, was the sister of King Tereus. The King's wife wants her sister to visit, and Philomela's father is reluctant to let her leave. Philomela's father asks Tereus to accompany her and protect her like she was his daughter. Tereus agrees, but is inflamed with lust and rapes her. Then he threatens her, and when she is defiant, cuts out her tongue so she can't expose him. The nymph's reference to this myth shows a shrewd skepticism of the promises of lovers driven by lust.

Another theme of this poem is the decay of youthful passions. Consider stanzas three and four:

"The flowers do fade, and wanton fields to wayward Winter reckoning yields; A honey tongue, a heart of gall, is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall. 

Thy gowns, the shoes, thy beds of roses, thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies, Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten, In folly ripe, in reason rotten."

The nymph points out that all the things the shepherd has promised to give his love soon fade away. A tongue that pours out honey today later becomes a heart that is bitter as gall. The gowns and shoes made of natural things will wither and die. They're full of folly, or foolishness, and if one subjects them to a reasoning mind rather than a foolish heart, they turn out to be rotten, losing all their beauty and appeal.

The reply matches stanza for stanza the style and rhythm of the original--The Passionate Shepherd to his Love.  The Nymph has an edge to her reply since in her sarcastic way she says that nothing the shepherd has to offer promises anything of length or commitment.  He does not promise marriage, he only says, "come live with me and be my love."

The Nymph does say that IF the shepherd could make time stand still and all the things that he offers (the flowers, the buttons, belts, and slippers which all dry up, die and fall apart eventually) could actually last for any substantial amount of time she might be tempted.  However, it is all temporary like the Spring, Summer.  Nothing lasts into the Fall or Winter.

This poem, which is in response to Marlowe's poem "Passionate Shepherd to his Love' takes a disbelieving approach to the  promises that have been made by the shepherd.

The casting of doubt, by the nymph, suggests that the shepherd is not being truthful or realistic in his assertions of unending love. The nymph questions the idea that love can overcome anything, and the unlikelihood that the shepherd has considered how time does change things.

The nymph's reply can be read as carrying a realistic, practical tone. The shepherd has painted an impossible scenario and the nymph is pointing out that she is aware of this: "flowers do fade..." and "Thy gowns, thy shoes...soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten..." She understands that love is more than the fleeting possessions one gives to another. She also understands the ways of the world, in that she isn't going to be duped into believing that new love stays the same; like the seasons, love changes (fades): "A honey tongue, a heart of gall/Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall." The nymph is right up front about not believing the promises that the shepherd offers when she says, "If all the world and love were young,/And truth in every shepherd's tongue..." she would live with him and be is love. Of course, she knows there is no truth in every shepherd's tongue, as she illustrates in the rest of the poem.

The Nymph's reply is rings of sarcasm and possibly a tinge of regret.

The Shepherd has offered her many things to "come live with me and be my love."  However, the Nymph's response includes her pointing out that all of the things the Shepherd has offered her are temporary.  All die, dry up, fall apart...nothing he has offered has any staying power.  That includes his proclamation of "love".  He never mentions marriage.  It's more of a "lust" call than a love proclamation.

She says that IF she could be sure that time would stand still and all these flowers and homemade items could last forever with the Spring/Summer months, then she might consider the temptation.  However, since she knows it is not true, and he has not offered a commitment past three-four months, she's not biting. 

In this poem, Raleigh takes on the persona of a nymph replying to a plea from her lover. The lover's argument was stated in Marlowe’s poem “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love.” In those verses, the shepherd had appealed to his nymph to run away with him to live in nature by painting a glorious picture of how wonderful it would be. The nymph replies in this poem with reminders of how harsh nature can be, especially in the winter months.

Some literary terms that could be applied to the poem are as follows:

The poem uses apostrophe, which is when a poem's speaker addresses a person who is absent or an animal or inanimate object. In this case, the nymph addresses the missing shepherd who is wooing her.

Each stanza of the poem is a quatrain--four lines--consisting of two rhyming couplets (rhyming couplets are lines that follow each other and rhyme). These end rhymes produce a pleasing sense of closure, such as in "fields" and "yields."

Raleigh uses asyndeton, which is when a writer leaves out conjunctions, such as "and" or "but," when he writes "Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten." Normally there would be an "and" before "soon forgotten," but a sense of parallelism is created by leaving out that word--and the omission does not confuse the meaning.

Imagery, description using any of the five senses of sight, sound, taste, touch, or smell, is abundant in the poem, such as in the following:

Thy belt of straw and ivy buds,
Thy coral clasps and amber studs

We can easily visualize these items.

The poem also uses antithesis, which is when opposites are juxtaposed (placed side by side), such as in "A honey tongue, a heart of gall," where a honey tongue is sweet but a heart of gall is bitter tasting, or in "In folly ripe, in reason rotten." In that line, folly and reason are in opposition, as are ripeness and rot.

The tone of the poem is practical, which contrasts with Marlowe's dreamy tone. This is important because the nymph and speaker of this poem is delivering a reply, examining all the reasons the shepherd's dreamy aspirations are doomed for failure.

"A honey tongue" is an example of metonymy, with the tongue representing the words that a tongue is used to construct. A honey tongue, therefore, represents sweet words. There is also irony in this stanza:

A honey tongue, a heart of gall,
Is fancy’s spring, but sorrow’s fall.

These sweet words of a "honey tongue" are temporary--just like spring. And though he tries to use them to flatter her, she realizes that they can only lead to her sorrow, just as the beautiful yet fleeting spring always gives way to fall, a time of death and dying. It's thus ironic that the sweet words he uses to attempt to flatter her only lead to rejection because those words remind her of the fleeting nature of lustful desires.

The syntax also reflects the tone of the poem. Consider this line:

In folly ripe, in reason rotten.

In this stanza, the nymph is telling the shepherd that his promises of roses and posies will soon be forgotten. For her to believe in the permanence of such promises would be her own folly--a loss of her reason. Typical syntax is abandoned here, flipping the order of expected nouns and adjectives, to reflect this suspension of reason.

This is of course a key question to focus on, as the identification of literary terms is an immensely important skill to be able to carry out in the study of literature. I will identify a few literary terms in this poem, but I would also like to leave a few for you to identify for yourself, as hopefully when I have shown you what to do and how to do it, you can then go on and analyse the rest of the poem yourself.

One of the first examples of a literary device is alliteration, the repetition of the initial consonant sounds, which is found in the first stanza in "pleasures prove." We can see how alliteration is used again in the second stanza with "rivers rage and rocks" and then "flocks from field to fold." Alliteration is something that is used throughout the poem and helps contribute to the song-like nature.

A metaphor is used in "A honey tongue," where the tongue is directly compared to being made of honey. This of course relates to the nymph's opinion of the shepherd's words in the poem to which this is a response. It indicates the sweetness of the words that the shepherd has uttered.

Hopefully this can get you started so you can identify other examples of literary terms. Good luck!

Throughout the poem, the nymph's clearly negative response is in direct contrast to all the promises made by the shepherd in Christopher Marlowe's The Passionate Shepherd to His Love. Her words convey the fact that all the pledges made by the shepherd have a temporal nature and, as such, are meaningless. She is not interested in committing to someone whose assurances are based on things that have no permanence at all.

To support her point of view and the reason for her rejection, the nymph provides examples of how each element in the shepherd's appeal loses its allure and significance over time. The allusion to the Greek goddess Philomel also suggests the fleeting character of all that the shepherd pledges. The fact that he cannot be trusted is also alluded to when she states in lines 1 and 2:

If all the world and love were young,
And truth in every Shepherd’s tongue,

It is impossible to read this excellent and somewhat cynical poem without reference to the poem that it responds to, "The Passionate Shepherd to his Love." Here, the shepherd woos his nymph talking of the wonderful life they will have together in the countryside. The nymph, thanks to Sir Walter Raleigh, is able to give her response in this second poem.

Throughout the poem what is stressed is the flaws in the vision of the shepherd. The nymph focuses on the cares and woes of fall and winter and increasing age, shattering the shepherd's idyllic vision of life in the countryside. Note the following stanza:

The flowers do fade, and wanton fields
To wayward winter reckoning yields;
A honey tongue, a heart of gall
Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall.

What is interesting in this stanza and in others is that the speaker uses a series of antonyms to contrast the shepherd's imaginings with life's bitter realities. Consider how "honey" is opposed with "gall" and "spring" with "fall." The words of the nymph are so successful precisely because they take every point the shepherd raises and turn them against his argument, forcing him to see reality.

Sir Walter Ralegh's poem (also called "Answer to Marlowe") is a philosophically satirical poem, so approaching it critically requires an understanding of the poem's meaning and references.  Ralegh is specifically answering Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to his Love", so it's important to read and understand Marlowe's poem first, and then apply criticism to Ralegh's poem with Marlowe's poem in mind. Ralegh's poem is self-conscious and satirical because it bursts the bubble of Marlowe's beautiful pastoral world.  It's humorous in the way Ralegh turns all of Marlowe's constructions ("coral clasps and amber studs," "beds of roses") into absurdities; but it is more than that.  Ralegh is making a philosophical point (a Platonic one, about the dangers of poetry) that the world created by love-poets is unreal and out of the temporal world.  Marlowe's Shepherd, says Ralegh, could not possibly exist.So some critical approaches would be: feminist criticism might have the practical nymph representing clear-headed humanity against Marlowe's flighty Shepherd, a Marxist criticism would question how the rural worker Shepherd would be able to afford the finery he's offering, and a New Historical criticism would look at this poem in the light of conditions in the political hotbed of Ralegh's day.  It's a poem ripe for exploration, and provides good material for many different types of criticism.

It is very important that this poem is not read in isolation. As the title indicates, Sir Walter Raleigh wrote this poem in response to Marlowe's poem, "Come live with me." As an evocation of the pastoral ideal, Marlowe's poem presents the words of a persuasive youth as he tries to woo his lover with promises of the kind of idyllic lifestyle that the countryside can offer her. However, Raleigh's poem gives voice to the "nymph" and her contrary position. As such, this poem raises the debate of the kind of naivety and pastoral vision of romance raised in Marlowe's original.

The nymph, for example, is very pointed in responding directly to some of the promises made by the young man in Marlowe's poem. Note how she responds to the promises of clothing:

The 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.

This quote helps us to identify the central point of debate that this poem invites. Raleigh wryly uses the nymph's voice to question the ephemeral nature of the promises made by the amorous young man in Marlowe's famous poem and suggests that such feelings and protestations of love are based more on passion in the heat of the moment than decisions that are carefully thought through and a result of logical reasoning. Such promises, the nymph is very strident in saying, will not be enough to tempt her to exchange her present security for such a precarious existence.

To fully understand Raleigh's "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd," we first have to take a step back to another poem. Raleigh's verse (written in 1600) is a direct response to Christopher Marlowe's 1599 poem, "The Passionate Shepherd to his Love." Marlowe's poem is told from the point of view of a male "shepherd" (actually a rich aristocrat) trying to woo his love to come live with him in a beautiful natural setting. This shepherd/aristocrat promises her an endless springtime in which they will sit on rocks and listen to birds sing, watch the sheep, and he will make her a soft bed out of roses and posies.

In "The Nymph's Reply," the woman (the nymph) speaks back to him. She tells him that the picture he paints of bliss in a natural, outdoor setting is false because it leaves out the downside of living in nature. She says that if it were forever spring, and the weather always beautiful, his argument might persuade her to come and live with him. However, she knows that winter comes and the outdoor world grows cold. The bed of roses and posies will wither. None of what he describes will last.

In the last stanza of the poem, she sums up her objections, saying that if they could stay young forever and time could stand still in an endless spring, she might be persuaded to join him in the "delights" he describes. However, she is a realist and wants some protection and security against the times when life grows rough. Thematically, she implies that she wants a lover who realizes there will be tough times in any relationship and will stick with her through these, not only when everything is easy and beautiful.