I love a good response poem. So here are a few sets starting with the original work and then the response/spoof/remix– whatever you wanna call it. Hold on to your butts, we’re about to get old school for a minute.
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love (1599) by Christopher Marlowe who was more talented than Billy Shakes but doesn’t seem to have the distribution.
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 flower, 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.
Ok. And now the response– The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd (1600) by Sir Walter Raleigh who looked like this, though it wasn’t his fault since he was Elizabethan.
If all the world and love were young,
And truth in every shepherd’s tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move
To live with thee and be thy love.
Time drives the flocks from field to fold,
When rivers rage and rocks grow cold;
And Philomel becometh dumb;
The rest complain of cares to come.
The flowers do fade, and wanton fields
To wayward winter reckoning yields;
A honey tongue, a heart of gall,
Is fancy’s spring, but sorrow’s fall.
Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy bed of roses,
Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies,
Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten,
In folly ripe, in reason rotten.
Thy belt of straw and ivy buds,
Thy coral clasps and amber studs,
All these in me no means can move
To come to thee and be thy love.
But could youth last and love still breed,
Had joys no date nor age no need,
Then these delights my mind might move
To live with thee and be thy love.
Our second set bumps us forward a few centuries. William Carlos Williams– an American poet writing about the everyday-old-stuff in a crisp, clean language– wrote this little joy of a poem.
This Is Just To Say
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
This seems to be a really popular one for responses, but my favorite one is This is Just to Say by Erica-Lynn Gambino.
(for William Carlos Williams)
I have just
asked you to
get out of my
apartment
even though
you never
thought
I would
Forgive me
you were
driving
me insane
And now! We close out this edition with a little spoken word. Gil Scott Heron (American poet, musician, proto-rapper, grade-A badass) with The Revolution Will Not Be Televised!
Sarah Jones wrote Your Revolution which may be considered a response (or a remix) to Gil Scott Heron’s piece, but it calls out a lot of hip hop songs of the time on their lyrics, too.
