The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by Christopher Marlowe

“COME be WITH ME and be MY LOVE” – the line is repeated twice in the poem.

BAM. From the opening line itself, one cannot help not seeing anything Freudian. COME be WITH ME and be MY LOVE.( Just omit ‘be’,'and', & ‘by’) Using the Freudian approach, we can see that the persona of the poem seems to have delusions of grandeur, and believes that he can win the affection of his lady love by offering her all the material wealth he mentions in the said poem.  Realistically speaking, how can a shepherd afford “fair lined slippers with buckles of purest gold” and other such material things that are quite extravagant? Or is he talking about something else here entirely? ;) 

From the very first line, one can already surmise that the shepherd’s subconscious mind is asking his lady love not only to live with him, but also for something much, much more intimate. The line is followed by “And we will all the pleasures prove That valleys, groves, hills, and fields, woods, or steepy mountain yields,” which for us, seems very explicit. The valleys, groves, hills here represent a woman’s curves, her bosom and derriere if you will, and the field, the area between her legs.  Wood can be substituted for a man’s genitalia, which in this case, belongs to the shepherd. Basically, to us, the introductory line is an outright invitation of the shepherd to his lady love – an invitation to become intimate with him, to become one with him, to consummate their love. Be it on beds of roses that the shepherd claims he will make for the lady, or by shallow rivers where other shepherds are seen tending their flock. “And we will sit upon rocks…” here can also mean that the shepherd is saying that he is already rock-hard, so to speak. And the abundance of “flowers” mentioned in the poem, one was even a BED of ROSES – flowers represent a woman’s nether region, her vagina – which obviously denotes something very erotic. Shallow rivers and falls may quite possibly mean the exchange of bodily fluids during the act of lovemaking, and the singing of the melodious birds, the climax; perhaps the even the sounds they will make during the act of lovemaking. The mere presence of birds and flowers in the poem is quite the sexual innuendo. =) The various places mentioned where they will “all their pleasures prove” could well mean different sexual positions. He also offers her garments of the finest quality, because the only thing sexier other than looking at a woman’s naked body is seeing it clothed by wonderful garments, and then removing them piece by piece – he is implying here that he wants to give her all these wonderful things so that he may take them off himself, one at a time, to savor the moment of each and every part of his lady love’s body that is being revealed. His ultimate goal is to satisfy the woman’s desire - both material and sexual. One other thing, the fact that he offers her material wealth - wealth the likes that only nobles or royalty of that period could afford -  that is far above his station as a shepherd suggests that the shepherd has a repressed desire to be of noble status as well.

Yaw Mang

AJ Parel