Who wrote 'The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd'?

• A. Sir Walter Raleigh
• B. Edmund Spenser
• C. John Dryden
• D. Thomas More

Answer: (A)

Sir Walter Raleigh is the author. This poem is a clever response to Christopher Marlowe’s The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, using a nymph’s skeptical tone to counter the shepherd’s rosy promises of eternal summer and perfect, unchanging love. The nymph argues that time and experience will spoil even the sweetest vows, so hurry and hold off on grand plans because beauty, youth, and certainty don’t last.

The other writers listed belong to different works or periods and aren’t connected to this exchange. Spenser, Dryden, and More each have their own distinct poems and themes, while Raleigh is the one historically linked to this particular dialogue and its witty, realist counterpoint to pastoral flirtation.