Poet
Christopher Marlowe
English poet · 1564–1593
The Passionate Shepherd to His LoveDoctor Faustus
Christopher Marlowe — Shakespeare's exact contemporary and his greatest early rival — transformed English drama before being killed in a tavern quarrel at 29.
His one perfect lyric, "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love," launched a four-century tradition of replies, parodies, and answer-poems, beginning with Walter Raleigh's skeptical "The Nymph's Reply."
1 poem by Christopher Marlowe
Full text, free to read — all in the public domain.