Comparison/Contrast Analysis Essay on two Renassance poets: Christopher Marlowe and Sir Walter Raleigh.

The renewed interest in classical learning is the "rebirth," or widely known as the Renaissance. It seemed as if it was a renewal of the human spirit because of the blooming curiosity and creativity. The forms of literature being made were about beautiful things, and they were daring, and passionate. Poets who wrote work of this sort were by no means far and few between, there were many, but two examples are Christopher Marlowe and Sir Walter Raleigh. The poem written by Marlowe is "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" and Raleigh's poem is "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd."

In Marlowe's poem the speaker is promising a woman many things that it seems no man could live up to do for a person. In the beginning the speaker says," Come live with me../ And we will all the pleasures prove," (1-2) he is basically saying "Hey, come sleep in my bed and we can try a few things," what respectable woman would like to be asked that. To me, he had lost the girl at hello. He continues on with, "And we will sit upon rocks/ Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks," (5-6) this means that they will sit on rocks everyday and watch sheep. "And I will make thee beds of roses/....A cap of flowers, and a kirtle," (9-11) now he is promising her a bed of roses with a flower hat and a skirt made of flowers, flowers are nice every now and then, but the flowers do die and what woman wants a wilted skirt and to lay upon rotted flowers? He promised these flowers for her, but what happens when winter comes? As the poem carries on the speaker seems to be in some fantasy, "The Shepherd swains shall dance and sing/ For thy delight...