POEMS: The Lovelorn Shepherd’s Plea and Shipshape Sheep
These two poems were created for the CPC’s monthly Pick Apart Poetry challenge.
The idea is to pick out 25 words from a featured poem to use to create a new poem.
The original poem is by Christopher Marlowe, and is shown at the end here.
THE LOVELORN SHEPHERD’S PLEA
If thee be my love,
pretty lamb of shepherds flock,
fragrant flowers shall dance and sing.
Come live with me
in valleys, groves, hills and fields,
pretty lamb of shepherds flock.
-the shepherd.
SHIPSHAPE SHEEP
A gown made of the finest wool,
wool slippers for the cold.
A belt of wool.
Pretty lamb delights
the shepherd’s flock.
Each May morning,
lamb stud minds come a-live
with love.
THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE
by Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)
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 the 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.