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How does a central idea develop over the course of the two poems "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love " and "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd"?

Sir Walter Raleigh's "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd" was written as a satiric reply to Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love." This means that the two poems are by two different authors and although they address related themes, there is no central argument made by both poems.


Marlowe's poem is a typical exemplar of the pastoral genre, in particular of the "carpe diem" amorous poem which argues that since life is short and beauty and pleasures fleeting, the female beloved should yield to the sexual advances of the male lover. Within the Christian community of early modern England, of course, engaging in premarital sexual activity would have been considered "fornication", a sin in the eyes of the church that would lead to social ostracism for the woman who yielded her virginity and perhaps became pregnant outside of marriage.


Raleigh's nymph presents a counterargument to Marlowe's shepherd, arguing that the fleeting nature of sensual pleasure is not an argument for indulging in it but rather emphasizes that its very ephemeral nature makes it ultimately not worth the risk.

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