The Nymph's Reply" is a poem written in response to another poem, Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" which you can check out here. In the "Reply," Ralegh essentially takes the argument put forth by Marlowe's shepherd and totally disses it, calling the shepherd out on the impermanence and short-term nature of all his promises to the nymph. And given that Christopher Marlowe was one of the most famous poets and dramatists of the era, this wasn't exactly a subtle move. Ralegh was incredibly private with his poetry, however, and he banked on the fact that his poems wouldn't be printed to keep him out of the limelight.