Poetry & Analysis
Selected Poems
Love PoemsThe Passionate Shepherd to His Love
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 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.
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.
Overview Short Summary
A shepherd invites his beloved into an ideal life of flowers, music, soft clothing, natural beauty, and shared pleasure.
Core Ideas Main Themes
This is a classic seductive poem built around invitation. It covers romantic desire, persuasion, fantasy, gifts, beauty, pleasure, and the hope of beginning a life together.
Literary Technique Imagery and Personification
Beds of roses, fragrant flowers, gold buckles, rivers, birds, and dancing create a world designed to appeal to every sense.
Critical Reading AP Lit-Style Central Argument
Marlowe presents seduction as the art of imagining a complete world for two people. The speaker offers not an argument based on duty, but a vision made of pleasure and beauty.
Go, Lovely Rose!
Go, lovely rose!
Tell her that wastes her time and me
That now she knows,
When I resemble her to thee,
How sweet and fair she seems to be.
Tell her that’s young,
And shuns to have her graces spied,
That hadst thou sprung
In deserts, where no men abide,
Thou must have uncommended died.
Small is the worth
Of beauty from the light retired;
Bid her come forth,
Suffer herself to be desired,
And not blush so to be admired.
Then die! that she
The common fate of all things rare
May read in thee;
How small a part of time they share
That are so wondrous sweet and fair!
Overview Short Summary
The speaker sends a rose to a shy beloved, asking it to tell her that beauty should not remain hidden and that time passes quickly.
Core Ideas Main Themes
The poem fits seductive poems for her through praise, invitation, and urgency. It explores beauty, admiration, shyness, time, and the wish to bring hidden attraction into the open.
Interpretation Symbols and Their Meaning
The rose mirrors the beloved: beautiful, rare, admired, and temporary. Its short life strengthens the speaker’s request that she stop hiding from desire.
To Electra
I dare not ask to kiss,
I dare not beg a smile,
Lest having that, or this,
I might grow proud the while.
No, no, the utmost share
Of my desire shall be
Only to kiss the air
That lately kissèd thee.
Overview Short Summary
The speaker refuses to ask directly for a kiss. Instead, he imagines kissing the air that has just touched Electra.
Core Ideas Main Themes
This is a short seductive poem shaped by restraint. Its themes are desire, distance, kissing, admiration, hesitation, and the way attraction can become stronger when it is controlled.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The mood is delicate, shy, and intimate. The speaker’s refusal to demand anything gives the poem its quiet romantic tension.
Jenny Kiss'd Me
Jenny kiss’d me when we met,
Jumping from the chair she sat in;
Time, you thief, who love to get
Sweets into your list, put that in!
Say I’m weary, say I’m sad,
Say that health and wealth have miss’d me,
Say I’m growing old, but add,
Jenny kiss’d me.
Overview Short Summary
A sudden kiss becomes the bright memory the speaker wants time to preserve, even if the rest of his life is marked by weariness or loss.
Core Ideas Main Themes
The poem belongs among short seductive poems about kissing because it captures spontaneity, delight, memory, and the emotional power of one affectionate gesture.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is joyful, witty, and warm. The repetition of the final phrase makes the kiss feel like a victory over age and sadness.
The Kiss
Before you kissed me only winds of heaven
Had kissed me, and the tenderness of rain—
Now you have come, how can I care for kisses
Like theirs again?
I sought the sea, she sent her winds to meet me,
They surged about me singing of the south—
I turned my head away to keep still holy
Your kiss upon my mouth.
And swift sweet rains of shining April weather
Found not my lips where living kisses are;
I bowed my head lest they put out my glory
As rain puts out a star.
I am my love’s and he is mine forever,
Sealed with a seal and safe forevermore—
Think you that I could let a beggar enter
Where a king stood before?
Overview Short Summary
After one meaningful kiss, the speaker feels that wind, rain, and every earlier touch have lost their power. The kiss becomes a permanent seal of love.
Core Ideas Main Themes
This poem supports seductive kiss poems and sensual love poems for him. Its central themes are devotion, physical memory, exclusivity, transformation, and the lasting effect of intimacy.
Literary Technique Imagery and Personification
Wind, sea, rain, and stars surround the kiss, but none can equal it. Natural beauty becomes the measure against which the beloved’s touch is judged.
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