The Nymph’s Reply Poem Overview

This poem is written in iambic tetrameter and there are elements of rhyming and repetition. The last word in each line rhymes with the last word of the line before, for every two lines. The repetition of the line “live with thee, and be thy love” is significant because those are the words from “The Passionate Shepard to His Love” as he is asking her to be his. I also feel there is some irony, because he can offer her all these beautiful and prized things but all she really desires is a real and genuine connection. He can offer all the worldly possessions she could want but those are not what will win her heart. 

              My interpretation of the poem is that the Nymph is saying all the things that the Shepard is promising her will fade over time, they are things that young love would be excited about but she wants something that will transcend time. She wants the deepest kind of love, that will not fade and will not end just because their human lives do. She is not impressed but all the material things he can offer, if he can not offer a love that is pure and true or that will last, she does not want it. Below is the quote I think shows this point best.

“ Thy 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.”