Lyric Poem · Love
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
by 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 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.
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“The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” by Christopher Marlowe — quilloak.com/poems/the-passionate-shepherd-to-his-love
Quick facts
- Poem
- The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
- Poet
- Christopher Marlowe
- Published
- 1599
- Length
- 24 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem, Rhyming Poems
- Themes
- Love, Nature
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 24 lines · 6 quatrains
- Line length
- Mostly 8-syllable lines (tetrameter length).
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on a United States term-expiry review; status can differ elsewhere.
- Author record
- Christopher Marlowe1564–1593
- Source record
- QuillOak curated editionThe Passionate Shepherd to His Love (1599) by christopher-marlowe
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- 1599
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 ea25d7044aae8b8f…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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