The Nymph and The Shepherd's Song E-Book

Paulino P. Frias

• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

THE NYMPH AND THE SHEPHERD’S SONG:

A Fascinating Love Story in Poesy

Once there was a song which was sung by a passionate lover. It echoed through the valleys, grooves, hills, fields, woods, and steepy mountains. When the sleeping nymph heard it, she woke up from her deep sleep… and that was more than four centuries ago… but they’re still alive! In the"Year of the Sheep," the shepherd sings anew, the angry nymph retorts and the battle for love continues!

 “I am a hunter, and I am a witness…”

Leseprobe

Paulino P. Frias

The Nymph and The Shepherd's Song

A Fascinating Love Story in Poesy

To Rosly and HansBookRix GmbH & Co. KG81371 Munich

Introduction

“If you can capture a woman's imagination, then you will have her. But imagination is a strange creature. It needs time and distance to function properly.”

                                       ― Kathleen Tessaro

Of the battles fought in the world, the battle for love is the most thrilling and exciting thing to witness. Love stories in literature abound as well as on screen and in real life. The characters involved, like soldiers, have to fight for their love and in most cases for the ones they love.

Lovers fight for different reasons, some noble while others vain. Cupid’s arrow has pierced so many a lover, but still there have been so many missed hits. One such attempt is Marlowe’s shepherd aiming at the heart of his beloved nymph— his dream, his desire.

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love is a short but beautiful pastoral poem which the world can’t just ignore. Written in 16th Century by Elizabethan poet Christopher Marlowe, it has charmed readers and poets at different times all over the world. One such great poet was Sir Walter Raleigh, his senior friend and contemporary who wrote a radical response in “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd.”  Marlowe attained a degree of success upon the emergence of Raleigh’s reply; and though the latter’s message through his meticulous nymph was harsh, it was not utter rejection. Raleigh may not have been the first to read his poem, but his quick response shows how significant and compelling to elicit response the invitation: “Come live with me and be my love.”

Marlowe’s short pastoral poem received more replies from other poets such as John Donne, “The Bait” where, instead of sheepherding, his persona persuades his beloved to seek “some new pleasures” in the river; Ogden Nash with his poem "Love Under the Republicans (or Democrats)"; WD Snodgrass, "Invitation"; Douglas Crase, "Covenant"; William Carlos William’s "Raleigh was Right" and Greg Delanty’s "Wiliams was Wrong"; and C. Day Lewis, in “Two Songs” whose poems speak about the modern world. Of the replies to Marlowe’s pastoral poem however, none was as fitting as Raleigh’s which stands foremost even up to the present.   

This literary work, “The Nymph and the Shepherd’s Song” or simply, MARLEIGH (a title derived from the first and last syllables of the 16th century poets MAR-lowe and Ra-LEIGH) is a 21st century response to Christopher Marlowe’s poem, “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” and Sir Walter Raleigh’s, “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd.” It is founded on the idea that Marlowe and Raleigh left before us a very beautiful yet unfinished battle of love between the two young lovers. In her reply, the nymph does not utterly close her door from any possible union with the shepherd. What the poems present to us is just the setting and conflict leading to rising action. We haven’t even reached the climax; hence the flow of the story must continue with the shepherd persisting and the nymph resisting until they come to the finale— either the nymph accepts or totally rejects the love offered by the shepherd. Why don’t we give the shepherd another chance to speak or to respond to the nymph’s reply? Why, based on her temperament, can’t the nymph give him an even wittier answer? If there is a reply which would aptly extend the flow of ideas in the story, it must be founded on this perspective. However, it does not follow that the shepherd and the nymph story must have a happy ending. Any eventuality or outcome may basically depend on the validity of their successive arguments and how they handle them. It may also in part depend on reality or historical facts and considerations upon which the story hinges.

In presenting this new response to Christopher Marlowe and Sir Walter Raleigh’s poems, the author uses a narrator who is herein referred to only as a lover hunter (as he too, is searching for the girl of his dream) to relate the story where the shepherd persists and entreats his beloved for the second time to “come and live” with him after more than four centuries. Since the nymph is seeking for true and enduring love, he tries to prove that his love for her is real in spite of fact that some lovers are not faithful. To this the nymph replies wittily not as an ordinary girl but as an immortal lover (a level which makes their status and situation even more complicated). So the story continues on this premise: The nymph has spoken and it’s the shepherd’s turn to speak. But how could he present a winning argument? How can he prove to her that his love is real? Can his passionate feelings prevail over her suspicious heart? Will the nymph concede to his gentle persuasions? In the long run, who shall win in this battle for love, Marlowe’s “passionate shepherd” or Raleigh’s “meticulous nymph”? Search no further! The sequel to “The Shepherd and The Nymph Story” is now written.

The battle for love continues! 

A Fascinating Love Story

Once there was a song which was sung by a passionate lover. It echoed through the valleys, grooves, hills, fields, woods, and steepy mountains. When the sleeping nymph from shady woodland heard it, she woke up from her deep sleep… and that was more than four centuries ago… but they’re still alive! In the “Year of the Sheep,” the shepherd sings anew, the angry nymph retorts and the battle for love continues!

“I am a hunter, and I am a witness…”

Pastoral Glimpse: The Short Poem He Left Before He Left

The period is mid-16th century. The folk in one of the countrysides of England said, it was Kit who told the story. They esteemed him as a great man, a playwright and a poet, who at the same time was engaged in the queen’s secret service. Not so much is known about his life; in fact the story of his latter life was a mystery. But he wrote poems and plays. His literary works is like “a face that launched a thousand ships.” As far as they could remember, there is one love story he wrote which the world could not forget. In short, he told his story in a short poem which he left before he left.

When I ask, “Where’s the poem, so I could read it?”

“It’s in the heart and mind of his readers anytime, anywhere, any place around the globe,” was all the reply I got.

The countrysides of England are among the most ideal places to be if you want to live in simplicity and serenity. But it is, according to the hermit of the village, a yarn of elves, goblins, witches and legends—all existing as creations of the mind and penned by the poets. Ruins of old castles, and stones of churches stand as monumental landmarks of even older civilizations; the grooves valleys and hills being weathered by a moderate climate of fogs and rain hold stories of mysterious creatures. Numerous encounters with these extra-ordinary beings could fill volumes and accounts of their dealings with humans are told in diversified versions.

“Do they hurt humans?’ I asked the old hermit curiously.