Speaker

The poem “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” by Sir Walter Raleigh is written in the first person singular. The speaker addresses someone throughout the poem with the pronoun “thee”. From the title of the poem, we understand that the speaker is a nymph, and she answers a request previously made by a shepherd. 

We can guess some things about the speaker from her rejection of the shepherd’s proposal, and more importantly, from her reasons for the rejection. The nymph is probably much older than the shepherd, so old that she has become cynical about the world and about people. She has lived through many ages and has seen how time affects both the natural environment and people’s feelings. Therefore, she does not trust words which are spoken in the heat of the moment, when someone is young and carefree, knowing that they will change th...