Name
Date
“The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” by Christopher Marlowe
“The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” by Sir Walter Raleigh
Reading Warm-up A
Read the following passage. Pay special attention to the underlined words. Then, read it again,
and complete the activities. Use a separate sheet of paper for your written answers.
While almost everyone knows that a red rose symbolizes passionate love, few people realize that flowers have
been used for centuries to convey a range of emotions.
The Victorians specialized in this subtle form of communication and even published books on what they called
the “language of flowers.” Using various blossoms and
floral arrangements, they expressed feelings which otherwise might not be spoken.
In addition to flowers, plants and herbs were used to
send messages. For example, rue meant disdain, mint
implied wisdom, rosemary was a sign of remembrance,
and parsley was connected with celebrations. Leaves from
groves of laurel trees were woven into wreaths to symbolize victory, a custom that began in ancient Greece.
Ancient Greece—sometimes idealized by the Victorians as a landscape dotted with flocks of gently grazing
sheep, the contented shepherd watching nearby, playing
a melodious tune on his pipes, and perhaps a lovely
nymph hiding in the woods—was where the pastoral tradition had its beginnings. Flowers are one of nature’s
simple joys that are celebrated in the pastoral tradition,
and the “language of flowers” certainly has some connection to the classical world.
For years, this form of sweet-smelling, fragrant communication was full of nuances: the type of flower, its color, and
especially the way it was given, all held special meaning. A
rosebud presented upright would convey the message: “I
fear, but I hope.” The same rosebud presented upside down
would signal there was no reason to hope. The nuances of
this “language” are now mostly forgotten, but some remain.
White roses still signify virtue, yellow roses stand for friendship, pansies mean “thoughts of you,” and lilies imply
purity. So, though we may not be fluent in the “language of
flowers,” and our gestures may be shallow rather than
deep, we still use flowers to express our feelings.
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28
1. Circle the words that tell
what symbolizes passionate
true love. Then, tell what
passionate means.
2. Underline the words that tell
what kinds of groves the
leaves came from. Write a
sentence using the word
groves.
3. Circle the word that describes
the kind of flocks that were
grazing. Name a flock of
something you have seen.
4. Underline the words that
gives a clue as to what a
shepherd does. Describe
what you think the duties of a
shepherd were.
5. Circle the words that help to
define melodious. Give a
synonym for melodious.
6. Circle the word that
describes the nymph. Tell
what a nymph is.
7. Underline the nearby word
that is a synonym for
fragrant. Then, write a
sentence using the word
fragrant.
8. Circle the words that help to
explain the meaning of
shallow. Describe something
that is shallow.
Name
Date
“The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” by Christopher Marlowe
“The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” by Sir Walter Raleigh
Reading Warm-up B
Read the following passage. Pay special attention to the underlined words. Then, read it again,
and complete the activities. Use a separate sheet of paper for your written answers.
Portraits of royalty in embroidered gowns and doublets, stories of banquets, and productions of Shakespeare’s plays have all created romantic images of
Elizabethan England. It is easy to imagine young, manly
swains and courtiers strolling through gardens, languishing in country palaces, or singing madrigals in court for
the Queen’s amusement. But that does not accurately
portray daily life, even for the privileged few.
For the merchants and commoners who lived in the
city of London, mere survival was a struggle. The city was
incredibly dirty and overcrowded. Houses were built close
together on dark, airless lanes. There were no sewers, and
garbage was dumped into a gutter that ran down the center of each street. Refuse gathered for days, and was
removed only when a wayward rainstorm washed it away.
The bubonic plague was a constant threat, killing people with wanton ease. Officials mistakenly believed that
stray dogs, not rats with fleas, were the carriers of the
infection. As a result, whenever there was an outbreak of
the disease, dogs were destroyed. This folly allowed the
rats to multiply more freely than usual, and did nothing
to control the epidemic.
Religious persecution was a constant reality, along
with war and poverty. In spite of that, the population
rose so dramatically during the sixteenth century, an
increasing number of people were unable to support
themselves, leading to crime and vagrancy. To control
this problem, punishments for even minor crimes were
deliberately harsh and public. These spectacles served as
a warning to anyone who had the gall to defy the law.
Most of the work of local officials consisted of tracking
estates and keeping a reckoning of births, deaths, and
marriages, so the government could have records of the
population. This became increasingly necessary as changes
in agriculture led people from the country to towns and cities where they hoped to find work and a better life.
Unit 2 Resources: Celebrating Humanity
© Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
29
1. Describe what an
embroidered gown might
look like. Then, tell what
embroidered means.
2. Underline the words that give
clues to the meaning of
swains. Rewrite the sentence
using a synonym for swains.
3. Circle the words that help
to explain what madrigals
are. Describe how madrigals
might amuse Queen
Elizabeth.
4. Rewrite the sentence using a
synonym for wayward. Then,
tell what wayward means.
5. Circle the words that explain
what the plague was doing
with wanton ease. Then,
explain what wanton means.
6. Circle the words that explain
what the folly allowed. Then,
tell what folly means.
7. Explain what gall means.
8. Circle the words that tell
what the officials were
expected to give a reckoning
of. Then, tell what reckoning
means.
Name
Date
“The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” by Christopher Marlowe
“The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” by Sir Walter Raleigh
Literary Analysis: Pastoral and Universal Theme
A pastoral is a poem or another work that celebrates the pleasures of a simple life in the
country. The term comes from the Latin word pastor, which means “shepherd.” Pastoral poems
generally display some or all of these features:
•
•
•
•
The speaker is a shepherd, or herder of sheep.
The shepherd describes the simple joys of country living.
The shepherd usually addresses or describes a shepherdess whom he loves.
The shepherd uses much more sophisticated vocabulary and imagery than would be
expected from the simple rural fellow he pretends to be.
• The picture of rural life is highly idealized, ignoring the hardships of living close to the
land, and instead, making such an existence seem carefree.
• The actual audience for the poem is an educated urban reader or member of court seeking
to escape the complexities of his or her life by reading about what he or she imagines to be
the free and untroubled existence of ordinary country folk.
Pastoral poems often express universal themes, which express ideas and emotions that
transcend time and place. Many universal themes express ideas about love—such as its
connection to youth or nature—that we can relate to today, hundreds of years after the poems
were written.
A. DIRECTIONS: On the lines provided, answer these questions about “The Passionate Shepherd
to His Love.”
1. Who is the speaker in Marlowe’s poem, and whom does he address?
2. What basic request does the speaker make of the person he addresses?
3. How would you describe the portrait the speaker paints of country living?
4. Identify two instances in which the speaker exaggerates the joys of country life.
5. Cite two examples of sophisticated language and imagery in Marlowe’s poem.
B. DIRECTIONS: On the lines below, identify a universal theme expressed by these two poems.
Unit 2 Resources: Celebrating Humanity
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30
Name
Date
“The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” by Christopher Marlowe
“The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” by Sir Walter Raleigh
Reading Strategy: Analyze Similar Themes
To analyze similar themes in two poems, compare and contrast the poems’ patterns of
organization and repetition. That is, look at the thoughts expressed in each stanza of the poems
and at the words that each poem repeats.
If you identify such similarities and differences, you will be able to tell if the two poets
basically agree or disagree in their presentation of a shared theme. For example, imagine two
poems about winter. They both include such words as winter, snow, bare trees, and icicles. In
one poem, each stanza describes the visual beauty of these elements. In the other poem, each
stanza focuses on the starkness and coldness of these elements. Analyzing the poems'
presentation of a similar theme, we could say they sharply differ of their views of winter, one
making it seem beautiful and the other, forbidding.
DIRECTIONS: Complete the chart shown here to help you analyze the theme of pastoral life as
presented in “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” and “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd.”
(Some responses are filled in for you.) Then write a statement explaining the views the two poems
present on the pleasures of pastoral life.
“The Passionate Shepherd”
“The Nymph's Reply”
Stanza
1
Repetition: live, love, pleasures
Detail: Live with me as my love and
enjoy the pleasures of nature with me.
Repetition: live, love, pleasures
Detail: If your description of these pleasures were true, I would be your love.
Stanza
2
Repetition:
Detail:
Repetition:
Detail:
Stanza
3
Repetition:
Detail:
Repetition:
Detail:
Stanza
4
Repetition:
Detail:
Repetition:
Detail:
Stanza
5
Repetition:
Detail:
Repetition:
Detail:
Stanza
6
Repetition:
Detail:
Repetition:
Detail:
How does each poet come to view the pastoral theme?
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31
Name
Date
“The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” by Christopher Marlowe
“The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” by Sir Walter Raleigh
Vocabulary Builder
Word List
gall
madrigals
melodious
reckoning
wither
A. DIRECTIONS: For each item below, write T if the statement is true. Write F if it is false.
1. Elizabethan women wore madrigals in their hair.
2. A screeching voice is very melodious.
3. A person filled with gall is often mean.
4. At the end of a meal, a waiter or waitress brings the reckoning.
5. Illness might cause someone’s skin to wither.
B. WORD STUDY: Based on what you have learned about the origin and meaning of the word
gall, circle the letter of the best answer to each item below.
1. Which of these might fill a person with gall?
A. unfair treatment
B. a new pet
C. a loud noise
D. true love
2. Which of these words most likely has the same origin as gall?
A. choler, meaning “anger”
B. challenge, meaning “task requiring special effort”
C. gala, meaning “festive occasion”
D. galley, meaning “a large ship”
3. Which sentence uses the word gall to mean “bitterness”?
A. Stefania’s cheerful demeanor indicated that she was brimming with gall.
B. A loose saddle can gall a horses back.
C. The ancient Greek doctor said the man’s humors were unbalanced: he had too much
gall and phlegm.
D. Fern’s lack of loyalty as a friend filled me with gall.
Unit 2 Resources: Celebrating Humanity
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32
Name
Date
“The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” by Christopher Marlowe
“The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” by Sir Walter Raleigh
Support for Writing
Use the chart below to take notes for your comparison-and-contrast essay. Review the
poems, writing notes and citing examples that show how the speakers’ views are alike and
different.
“The Passionate Shepherd to
His Love”
“The Nymph’s Reply to the
Shepherd”
Love
Nature
Time
Material
World
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Name
Date
“The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” by Christopher Marlowe
“The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” by Sir Walter Raleigh
Enrichment: Sheep and Shepherds
Sheep are native to western Asia, where people hunted them back in the Stone Age. Toward
the end of the Stone Age, however, some people began to domesticate, or tame, the wild sheep
enough so that they could be kept in herds. As populations increased, it became harder for
everyone to find wild sheep to hunt, so herding made it easier to use the sheep for food. A
shepherd is someone who takes care of a herd of sheep. Younger sheep are known as lambs.
Over time, sheep and sheep herding spread to other parts of Asia, and to Africa and Europe
as well. Sheep were used for their meat, their milk (from which cheese and other milk products
were made), and their wool, which was bred to be thicker and thicker over the centuries. Sheep
were also bred to be less intelligent than they are in the wild.
Since sheep raised for wool can be fed a wide variety of foods, it is easier to raise sheep in
poorer soils and rocky terrain than it is to raise cows and pigs. A sheep’s wool can be sheared off
many times during its lifetime, so the sheep is much more productive than other animals that
must be killed for their hides.
Although being a shepherd is still an important part of the economy in many parts of the
world, in past times it was even more important. For example, according to the famous
Domesday Book, a historic record compiled soon after the Norman Conquest of 1066, there
were more sheep in England at that time than all other types of livestock combined.
DIRECTIONS: Answer these questions based on the information in the paragraphs above and
your own knowledge and experience.
1. How did the growth of early cities create the need to domesticate animals such as sheep?
2. Do you think sheep are mentioned in the Bible? Why or why not?
3. Why do you think people bred sheep to be less intelligent?
4. Why might it be more productive to raise sheep than pigs?
5. How does the information in this passage help explain why a whole tradition of poetry—the
pastoral tradition—arose around the job of being a shepherd?
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34