Poetry Friday: Christopher Marlowe
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, by Christopher Marlowe
Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,
Woods, or steepy mountain yields.
And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.
And 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.
A gown made of the finest wool
From which our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold
A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs;
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.
The shepherd swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.
---
Although you would never guess it from the poem above, Kit Marlowe (1564-1593) is quite a controversial historical figure. Was he a spy? Was he an atheist? Was he gay? Was his murder at the age of 29 a conspiracy? Or did he fake his own death, and come back to write as William Shakespeare? You can read more about all of these theories in Marlowe's Wikipedia entry.
UPDATE: Here are some other Poetry Friday entries for the week.
- Liz at A Chair, A Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy has a poem by Anne Bradstreet.
- Anne at Book Buds has a poem by Philip Larkin on parenting.
- Leila at bookshelves of doom has a poem from E. Nesbit's The Treasure Seekers.
- Susan at Chicken Spaghetti links to a Billy Collins poem about teaching.
- Little Willow has "Epitaph for a Darling Lady" by Dorothy Parker.
- Gregory K. at Gotta Book has an original entry called "A Fish Story".
- Melissa Wiley at Here in the Bonny Glen has a poem by Amy Lowell, a choice indirectly inspired by my cool girls list (because Vicky Austin knew it by heart).
- Elizabeth at Real Learning has some Emily Dickinson.
- Michele at Scholar's Blog has a poem by Wordsworth called "Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood".
- Becky at Farm School has Prarie Greyhounds by E. Pauline Johnson, along with some biographical information about the author.
- Mungo's Mathoms has a poem by Robert Herrick.
- Susan Taylor Brown has a neat post in which she chronicles the development of one of her poems from Hugging the Rock over three years, from rough notes to final published product.
- Sheila at Wands and Worlds joins the Poetry Friday gang with Puck's soliloquy from A Midsummer Night's Dream. I do love that one!
Jen, the blog is going so well! Congrats! Would you consider posting some of Carl's poetry...by any chance? Let me know...Thanks!
Posted by: miles | June 10, 2006 at 08:59 PM
very cool.. i had no idea about this!! thanks for introducing me .. i have to do so much research now !!!
Thank you..
Qaiz.
www.qaiz.blogspot.com
Posted by: qaiz | June 20, 2006 at 01:13 PM