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 Which from 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.
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem. Early Printings of "The Passionate Shepherd" — This page contains information about and images of the first printed versions of Marlowe's poem. Pastoral — A guide to the pastoral genre, from the Encyclopedia Britannica. LitCharts Teacher Editions. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts.
In fact, the whole poem is composed of six total quatrains just like the one above, all of which follow the rhyme scheme. And what rhyme scheme is that, you ask? Well love rhymes with prove or at least it does in Marlowe-speak , and field rhymes with yield. That means we've got a good old fashioned AABB. Lines And we will sit upon the rocks, Seeing the Shepherds feed their flocks, In lines 5 and 6, we find yet another promise from the speaker.
The plan is pretty self explanatory: they will sit on rocks, watching shepherds feed their sheep. While that might not sound romantic to us modern-day folks, we're guessing that back then, sitting around watching sheep was a lot like a candlelit dinner. Or something. Also, the plans the speaker details here don't put forth the most aggressive agenda. Sitting on rocks? Watching sheep eat? These are not activities that require a lot of energy, folks. In fact, they sound downright leisurely.
Given the realities of country life in the sixteenth century no Wal-Marts, no electricity, self-sustaining farms, etc. Maybe yes, maybe no. But hold on to that thought, we'll come back to it soon. These two lines exhibit a poetic device that pops up in Marlowe's poetry all the time: alliteration.
Hear that S sound in "seeing the shepherds," or the F sound in "feed their flocks"? That, dear Shmoopers, is alliteration, and Marlowe's a big fan, so keep an ear out for more. And for the scoop on how this device works in the poem, take a look at the " Sound Check " section. Lines By shallow rivers, to whose falls Melodious birds sing madrigals Line 7 tells us that the shepherds from line 6 are feeding their sheep somewhere near shallow rivers, and line 8 adds to this already scenic picture: birds are singing songs or madrigals to the beat of some nearby waterfalls.
We don't know about you, but we're relaxed just thinking about this. But the birds singing in tune to the waterfalls is something more likely to be found in a Disney movie than in the actual English countryside, lovely though it may be.
If you've ever used the phrase "no bed of roses" to describe a particularly nasty homework assignment, congratulations—you are quoting Marlowe. In the poem, Marlowe seems to be referring to an actual bed made of rose petals, but "bed of roses" as an expression has come to mean something more like a super luxurious or easy situation.
Okay not all the time, but it's a pretty safe bet that if you're reading about roses, especially beds of roses, someone's got lovin' on the brain. Lines A cap of flowers, and a kirtle, Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle. These lines reveal more promises from the speaker. We're starting to see a trend. The speaker is clearly going to lots of trouble to promise nice things in an effort to persuade the addressee to accept the whole "come live with me, and be my love" offer.
Why are so many promises necessary? You didn't hear it from us, but it sounds like someone might be afraid of getting rejected. Our speaker is quite the sewing machine, now promising to make caps, or hats, of flowers and a kirtle, or skirt, that is embroidered with myrtle leaves. The earthy, floral material being used to make the clothes is in keeping with the pastoral theme that was established in the previous quatrain.
We're also picking up on some potential Garden of Eden vibes, what with the "trees for clothes" talk going on. Lines A gown made of the finest wool Which from our pretty lambs we pull, Our speaker is still going on about clothes; now he's making a gown from lambs' wool, and not just any lambs' wool—the finest and best lambs' wool, freshly plucked from all those lambs living the dream up by the river with the waterfalls in stanza 2.
Clothes are everywhere in this stanza and it's not because our speaker has gone on a shopping spree.
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