Expert: Ted Nesbitt - 8/22/2003

Question
Christopher Marlowe and John Donne used the same opening line in a poem. What was the line?

Answer
Pat:

"Come live with me, and be my love."

There was another famous poet -- actually England's Poet Laureate -- who used the same line.  He was Daniel Day-Lewis' father.  All three poems are pasted below.

Ted Nesbitt
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The Passionate Shepherd to his Love   
   by Christopher Marlowe
        
   Come live with me, and be my love;
And we will all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dales 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 flowers, and a kirtle
Embroider'd 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:
An if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.
The shepherd-swains shall dance and sing
For they delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me, and be my love.

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Come Live With Me   
   by John Donne
        
       Come live with me, and be my love,
  And we will some new pleasures prove
  Of golden sands, and crystal brooks,
  With silken lines, and silver hooks.

  There will the river whispering run
  Warm'd by thy eyes, more than the sun;
  And there the 'enamour'd fish will stay,
  Begging themselves they may betray.

  When thou wilt swim in that live bath,
  Each fish, which every channel hath,
  Will amorously to thee swim,
  Gladder to catch thee, than thou him.

  If thou, to be so seen, be'st loth,
  By sun or moon, thou dark'nest both,
  And if myself have leave to see,
  I need not their light having thee.

  Let others freeze with angling reeds,
  And cut their legs with shells and weeds,
  Or treacherously poor fish beset,
  With strangling snare, or windowy net.

  Let coarse bold hands from slimy nest
  The bedded fish in banks out-wrest;
  Or curious traitors, sleeve-silk flies,
  Bewitch poor fishes' wand'ring eyes.

  For thee, thou need'st no such deceit,
  For thou thyself art thine own bait:
  That fish, that is not catch'd thereby,
  Alas, is wiser far than I.


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Untitled   
   by Cecil Day-Lewis
        
   Come, live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
Of peace and plenty, bed and board,
That chance employment may afford.

I´ll handle dainties on the docks
And thou shalt read of summer frocks:
At evening by the sour canals
We´ll hope to hear some madrigals.

Care on thy maiden brow shall put
A wreath of wrinkles, and thy foot
Be shod with pain: not silken dress
But toil shall tire thy loveliness.

Hunger shall make thy modest zone
And cheat fond death of all but bone -
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.