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ignorantstudent
12-03-2012, 06:03 PM
Hi guys, attempting to study for a final exam. Would like some help. Im hopeless when it comes to these topics -_-. Apparently I only state the obvious, and don't go past that

- The passionate Shepard to his love By Christopher Marlowe

I understand he is Idealizing nature to his love, but what "significance" does it have?
He shows the pleasures of it, the mountains, fields etc. Its a carefree simple life


- To Penshurst By Ben Jonson

I have no idea whats going on here,

- Marvell's Garden By Phyllis Webb

I know this is a response to Andrew Marvell. In Marvell's poem he writes that society has forgotten nature and tells people to leave their materialistic life. Nature has been taken for granted.
Im kind of lost on both poems

MorpheusSandman
12-04-2012, 03:26 AM
I won't do all the work for you, but I'll give you some pointers:

-Gardens and nature are related to the tradition of pastoral poetry. Pastoral poetry is often used implicitly as a retreat from the world of modernized cities; it becomes a metonym for paradise/Eden, an idealized vision of a primitive, simpler state of being.

-In both The Passionate Shepard and To Penshurst, the authors are presenting this classical, Edenic vision; in the former it's used to entice the subject (the woman the speaker is talking to) to "come away with" the speaker, in the latter it's used to praise the subject (paraphrased: "you may not have all these modern riches, but you have this natural paradise.").

-In Marvell's Garden, however, the speaker openly rejects this idealized pastoral setting from the beginning.

That should get you going as a good basis for comparison and contrast.