Task
A. Write a Dialogue (10 points)
After reading Christopher Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” and Sir Walter Raleigh’s “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd,” write a dialogue using the voices of the shepherd and the nymph. Paraphrase the key ideas in each poem to create a complete and active conversation between the shepherd and the nymph, using formal or informal modern English. Be sure that you do not just summarize.
B. Write a Sonnet (10 points)
Write your own sonnet using Italian, English, or Spenserian sonnet form. Develop a clear main idea using the correct structure, rhyme scheme, and meter of the sonnet form you have chosen. State which form you are using.
Answer
Dialogue
This dialogue is based on “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” by Christopher Marlowe and “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” by Sir Walter Ralegh (Poetry Foundation; Marlowe).
Shepherd: Come to me and be my love, and let us prove that love really yields pleasures
Nymph: If love never grew old and the words of a shepherd were always true, then the mention of pleasures of love would move me
Shepherd: pleasures we can create ourselves, just you and me, whatever we choose to do, be it listening to birds sing by the riverside or watching shepherds feed their flock
Nymph: The problem is that such activities or interest that may bring us together will one day fade, then what will be left will be complains about each other
Shepherd: Each day we will invent something new to do, even as I will seek to make you happy and provide all your needs
Nymph: Your efforts to make me happy will one day tire, even as changes in seasons and yields will hamper my desire to make you happy or your desire to make me happy, leading to disagreements and a love that is bitter than sweet
Shepherd: Give it a try and let us wed. Let me dress you in the finest clothes and jewelry for your wedding and make it a memorable day that will be the first step to our happily ever after.
Nymph: All these material things cannot be the basis for my love for you as they will fade, leaving nothing between us. If only you could prove to me that our joys will last forever and that we will remain young and without changes in needs that would cause complaints between us, the I would consider coming to you and being your love.
Poem
Spenserian Sonnet
Six feet tall he stands so tall,
With a mass so huge moves like a winter glis,
His name no doubt is in the fame hall,
His subjects cheer in a wave of bliss,
His fame stands higher than Hercules,
But deep down he’s weak and frail,
For his enemies he feels nothing but malice,
But the demise of his loved makes him ail,
If only on time to her he would have sail,
Today she would have stood beside him saved,
In this height he knew he had fail,
Even as through his heart guilt paved,
And so down the cliff he let himself free,
And with his love he went to be.
Works Cited
Marlowe, Christopher. The Passionate Shepherd to His Love. 2019. 20 January 2020 <https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44675/the-passionate-shepherd-to-his-love>. Poetry Foundation. The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd. 2019. 20 January 2020 <https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44939/the-nymphs-reply-to-the-shepherd>.
