I do not have a love with whom to share Valentine's Day yet, but I'm curious. Have you ever read "Love In The Valley" by George Meredith? It's without doubt the most beautifully descriptive pastoral poem I've ever encountered.
I certainly wouldn't want to sleep on a bale of hay for the rest of my life. I think the Shepherd needs some pointers on his wooing.
Sir Walter Raleigh actually wrote a reply to this poem in his work titled, "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd" in which the girl refuses him... You can read it here:
I do not have a love with whom to share Valentine's Day yet, but I'm curious. Have you ever read "Love In The Valley" by George Meredith? It's without doubt the most beautifully descriptive pastoral poem I've ever encountered.
I just read some of it and bookmarked it for a later read but I like it!! This line made me smile: She whom I love is hard to catch and conquer,
Hard, but O the glory of the winning were she won!
Meredith's vocabulary is on full display in it.
For instance, (and mind you, it took me several reads just to grasp all he was saying here):
"Mother of the dews, dark eye-lashed twilight,
Low-lidded twilight, o'er the valley's brim,
Rounding on thy breast sings the dew-delighted skylark,
Clear as though the dewdrops had their voice in him.
Hidden where the rose-flush drinks the rayless planet,
Fountain-full he pours the spraying fountain-showers."
This does have some nice imagery in it!
(That shepherd's got a lot more to work with than a programmer for romanticizing his occupation, I'll tell you that much... 😊)
A man could die happy after hearing #4--if doing so didn't leave the reciter very *un*happy.
I certainly wouldn't want to sleep on a bale of hay for the rest of my life. I think the Shepherd needs some pointers on his wooing.
Sir Walter Raleigh actually wrote a reply to this poem in his work titled, "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd" in which the girl refuses him... You can read it here:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44939/the-nymphs-reply-to-the-shepherd