What references to youth and spring can be find in “The Passionate Shepherd To His Love”?
sfwriter Teacher Community / Jr. College eNotes Editor The very first line of the poem “Come live with me and be my Love,” (line 1) implies the youth of both parties. Since neither of them currently has a spouse (and are thus free to marry each other) it follows that they both might be in their young adulthood. The rest of the stanza invites the maiden (or nymph) to whom the Shepherd is speaking to enjoy the “pleasures” of the natural landscape. It is assumed here, also, that it is clement weather in which to enjoy these scenes. Spring would be one season in which it would be enjoyable to roam the “hills and valleys, dale and field,/And all the craggy mountains” (3-4). Stanza two becomes more explicit in its indication of time of year. “Melodious birds sing madrigals” (8) definitely conjures up a mental image of springtime. Birds do sing other times of year, but by far season with the most birdsong, in England, is spring. “There I will make thee beds of roses/And a thousand fragrant po
