Christopher Marlowe’s The Passionate Shepard is a prime example of a Carpe Diem poem. The passionate shepard is trying to convince his love to come live with him n the serenity of a pastoral life. The shepard can give her fun-filled days of watching shepards with their flocks, while sitting on rocks. The shepard can give her a warm wool gown, beautiful slippers, with beautiful buckets of the finest gold, beds of roses, a belt of straw and ivy buds. The shepard would give her all of this in hopes that she will come to live with him, and be his love. The speaker wants his love to seize the day: “If these delights thy mind may move/ Then live with me, and be my love.” (Stanza 6, ll 23 & 24) He wants the love of his life to take a leap into his pastoral world, and in return, he will make her happy. The speakers Carpe Diem philosophy is a romantic view of life, but not at all realistic.
In Sir Walter Raleigh’s retort to Marlowe’s poem, The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepard, the speaker takes on the contrary view of life, realism. The speaker does not take on the Carpe Diem perspective of the world, and looks beyond today and see’s the consequences of the decisions she may make now. She replies to the shepard with a more pessimistic way of thought: “But time drive flocks from field to fold/When rivers rage and rocks grow cold,” (Stanza 1, ll 1-3). She is essentially telling him that even if he were to make life great for the two of them, with all of the pastoral scenes he is offering, what happens when sheep go in for the winter, and the rocks are too cold to sit and view the country-side upon? In stanza 4, lines 13-15 “Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of posies/Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies/ Soon break, soon whither, soon forgotten” the speaker is following the same outlook, basically saying that life always won’t be as great as he is offering, for flowers die, and clothes fade and eventually turn to tattered rags. The speaker’s bleak outlook on life is very realistic and wise.
The speakers of Christopher Marlowe’s The Passionate Shepard and Sir Walter Raleigh’s The Nymph’s Reply have entirely contrasting views of the world, the former being adventures, and romantic, following the saying “Carpe Diem”, and the latter being realistic and down-to-earth.
