Exactly how steamy is this poem?
PG
It seems our frisky shepherd has nothing but honorable intentions: he just wants a little company while he explores nature, listens to tunes, and pulls gold shoe buckles out of thin air. But while there's nothing explicitly sexual in "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love", the sexual implications that go with asking someone to move to the country and be your "love" are pretty undeniable. There's also all that talk of "pleasures" and then the whole bed of roses bit, which strikes us as being pretty heavy on the steamy side of things. So, is our speaker totally innocent? No. Is there a very real possibility of putting that bed of roses to use? Almost certainly. But it's not in the poem, so we'll keep the rating at PG.