Inner composition

The poem “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” by Sir Walter Raleigh has a linear composition. It reads like an answer to a previous plea which we are told of in the fourth line of the first stanza: “To live with thee and be thy love” (l. 4). Therefore, the shepherd has previously asked the nymph to be his lover, and this poem offers the nymph’s reply. 

We note that the rejection is presented as acceptance if only circumstances were different. This is expressed by the repetition of the conditional “if”. The poem also has a circular structure, since the first and last stanza of the poem express the same conclusion, and reject the shepherd’s plea. The poem is a mirror to Christopher Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to his Love”. Each stanza of Raleigh’s poem addresses one of the promises made by the shepherd in Mar...