Come, live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
Of peace and plenty, bed and board,
That chance employment may afford.
I'll handle dainties on the docks
And thou shalt read of summer frocks:
At evening by the sour canals
We'll hope to hear some madrigals.
Care on thy maiden brow shall put
A wreath of wrinkles, and thy foot
Be shod with pain: not silken dress
But toil shall tire thy loveliness.
Hunger shall make thy modest zone
And cheat fond death of all but bone-
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.
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From guest Nancy Charlton (contact)
I was glad to find this poem, as it is the most contemporary "reply" to Christopher Marlowe's shepherd in "Come live with me and be my love." It was a vogue for many years in the late 16th and early 17th centuries to write such "replies." The best known is Ralegh's "If all the world and love were young/ And truth in every shepherd's tongue." John Donne did a charming one also. By Milton's time the underlying theme of contrasting two life styles had taken over from the overtly pastoral genre (ugh! I hate it when I say something pedantic like that) so that you could argue that "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso" are perhaps the ultimate answer to the shepherd. Ralegh's reply echoes every line of Marlowe in sequence, and Day-Lewis's does too. But it also introduces a stark wolf-at-the-door view of the event. Take this where you will: I've been toying with the idea of making a multi-media production using all these poems and related ideas. -
When was this poem written?
Was it dedicated to some lady whos name is known? -
its alright i really didnt know what it meant
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