The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd

[1] Stylistically, the poems by Marlowe and Raleigh are pastoral poetry written in six quatrains that employ a rhyme scheme of AABB CCDD EEFF GGHH IIBB JJBB.

Time drives the flocks from field to fold When Rivers rage and Rocks grow cold, And Philomel becometh dumb; The rest complains 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.

For the Queen, Mistress Margaret Radcliffe (Nanette Fabray) offers to sing Marlowe's propositions in “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”, whilst Lady Penelope Gray (Olivia de Havilland), who is in love with the Earl of Essex, sings Raleigh's rebuttal, “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd”, despite the protests of the frightened ladies in waiting also listening to the poetical recitation.

Their performance of the poetry evokes Elizabeth I of England's fear that her love with Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (Errol Flynn) is doomed by the thirty-two-year difference in their ages.