The Beauty Of Love

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love 

Christopher Marlowe 

1599 

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 flower, 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.

The shepherds' 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.

***

This is my favorite poem, one of the first that I ever appreciated as a young boy.  It speaks to the yearnings of the heart to have and be with its beloved.  

It has been conjectured that the poet, Christopher Marlowe was a same gender loving person, and that this poem was an appeal to his secret lover.  In the year 1600, Sir Walter Raleigh famously responded with his own poem (The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd) in which he expressed fear and doubt about the idyllic promises in Marlowe's beautiful poetry.

Nevertheless, some 400 years later, the Shepherd's promise can now be fulfilled in the lives of men who love one another... And so the truth of a heart from a past now long ago and the promise of love that was once only dreamed of can be made real today.

"Fear Eats the Soul"

IWTFY