The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd was written by which author?

• A. Philip Sidney
• B. Edmund Spenser
• C. Sir Walter Raleigh
• D. Christopher Marlowe

Answer: (C)

The main idea here is identifying who wrote a famous Elizabethan reply to a pastoral poem. The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd is a counterpoint to Christopher Marlowe’s The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, and it is Sir Walter Raleigh who pens the reply. Raleigh’s stanzaical voice takes the shepherd’s rosy promises and pushes them through a lens of time and change, arguing that beauty and love are fleeting, so the shepherd’s offers aren’t as convincing as they first sound. That connection to Marlowe’s poem is what firmly places the author as Raleigh. The other writers listed are known for different works—Marlowe wrote the original shepherd poem, while Sidney and Spenser produced distinct poems and collections—so they aren’t the source of this particular reply.