What is the author's style in The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by Christopher Marlowe?

The Greek poet Theocritus first created the pastoral poem when he wrote poems representing the life of a Sicilian shepherd. Theocritus produced a picture of quiet peace and harmony among shepherds who lived in an idealized natural setting. His shepherds were characterized by a state of contentment and friendly competition among friends. Love for these shepherds was a romantic longing and not sexual in any way. Theocritus was then copied by the Roman poet, Virgil, whose elegies had a strong influence on early English Renaissance poets. Virgil added some darker elements, including the grief the shepherd feels at the death of another shepherd. Virgil also included suggestions of contemporary problems and created a stronger contrast between the rustic country life and the dangers of city life.

Marlowe probably studied the pastoral poets during his classical education at Cambridge, but he was not the first English poet to adopt the pastoral tradition. Edmund Spenser initiated the Elizabethan trend in 1579 with The Shepheardes Calender, and was quickly joined by Sir Philip Sidney and Robert Greene, who created their own pastoral works. Marlowe, however, made the pastoral his own poetic form by inserting sexuality and by exaggerating the images. Before Marlowe, the shepherd engaged in romantic, though innocent, love affairs and the pastoral was conventional, with artificial language and shepherds who spoke the courtly language of an aristocrat. Marlowe bent the rules by introducing sexuality, creating his own pastoral tradition. The tone of "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" suggests a parody of the pastoral tradition. Marlowe's shepherd asks the woman to imagine an idyllic life that not only is impossible but even ridiculous in many ways. In exaggerating and creating these absurd images, Marlowe suggests that the pastoral tradition should not be taken too seriously.