The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd

Publication Date: January 4, 2011

Chapter: English Literature in the Sixteenth Century

Alright, Raleigh's officially awesome: he wrote a poem specifically to diss someone else's poem. The details are in the above Wiki link, but basically, Walt read Christopher Marlow's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" and cried horseshit on it. He then wrote a poem refuting Marlow's poem almost line for line. This is the kind of dickery I can get behind, and is one reason I love the Elizabethan era. These great and terrible authors never worked in a vacuum; they were a community of assholes that constantly praised and pissed on each others' work.

Which is to say, I love a world in which you can write a poem just to say "suck it, Kit." Preach on, Walter. Preach on.

Author: Walter Raleigh • Year: c. 1596 • Info: Wikipedia

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Lit Brick is a comic started by Jodie Troutman in an effort to read the entire Norton Anthology of English Literature. Having eventually succeeded in that goal, it now features comics about all manner of random literature. For more of Jodie's work, visit longtalljodie.com!