Pastoral Poetry

Pastoral poetry has a long history and goes back to the time of the Greeks but there was a huge revival of the concept in the 18th and 19th Centuries.  I hope you enjoy some of these poems I am posting.  You could even say that some of the Psalms in the Old Testament are Pastoral Poems. It's funny how sheep draw poetry out of people.  Here is a slightly too sweet one by Christopher Marlowe but it is rather cheery and upbeat:

The 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 th 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,

Christopher Marlowe
(1564-1593)