Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Venus and Adonis
    Venus and Adonis
    Venus and Adonis
    Ebook54 pages36 minutes

    Venus and Adonis

    By William Shakespeare

    ()

    Switch to audiobook
    Read preview

    About this ebook

    EVEN as the sun with purple-colour'd face
    Had ta'en his last leave of the weeping morn,
    Rose-cheek'd Adonis tried him to the chase;
    Hunting he lov'd, but love he laugh'd to scorn;
    Sick-thoughted Venus makes amain unto him,
    And like a bold-fac'd suitor 'gins to woo him.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWilliam Shakespeare
    Release dateSep 30, 2015
    ISBN9788893155977
    Author

    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest dramatist in the English language. Shakespeare is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon.”  

    Read more from William Shakespeare

    Related to Venus and Adonis

    Related ebooks

    Poetry For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Feb 28, 2023

      For Sudeep Sen I know how grateful you were for myconfession. I, too, had been trusted, I, too,desired, and felt the other mess of need,the clumsy psychology of powerand uselessness. I, too, had betrayed,had confessed, had faced her wailrushing down

      3 min read

    • Article

      Bard In The Woods

      Nov 30, 2020

      Bard In The Woods
      4 min read

    • Article

      On Love

      Mar 7, 2022

      On Love
      7 min read

    • Article

      On Grief

      Jul 29, 2019

      On Grief
      5 min read

    • Article

      Tessa Castro

      Nov 15, 2023

      IN COMPETITION No 299 you were invited to write a poem called My Prime. Rob McMahon found it hard to unsubscribe to Amazon Prime: ‘Infected now like some unwelcome affliction / I cannot escape this new monthly subscription,’ and Hugh Cartwright told

      2 min read

    • Article

      This Is the Fruit I’ll Never Die For: Featured Poetry by Paisley Rekdal

      May 7, 2019

      By turns sensual and sweet, Rekdal’s narrator captures the many facets of hunger. The post This Is the Fruit I’ll Never Die For: Featured Poetry by Paisley Rekdal appeared first on The Millions.

      2 min read

    • Article

      Patricia Smith

      Mar 15, 2019

      but which verbs do you employ when it’s clear that you are tryingto side-eye murder your mother, when you are the chilling moral of every blazing honor thy Sunday sermon, when you are nothingless than blasphemy blown wide? How you do lift the bleatin

      1 min read

    • Article

      Echo and Narcissus

      Mar 7, 2022

      Echo and Narcissus
      7 min read

    • Article

      from BLACK PASTORAL

      Nov 1, 2023

      somewheres, some lifetimes ago I have run so far, so long.There is nowhere I haven’t beenBut here, in this field, a bodyLength from the ragged brinkThat gives way to forest.I collapsed here, the thin, hard slipOf me whittled at both ends.I want badly

      4 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems by Daniel Halpern

      Jun 15, 2019

      Dear you know who you are: You must be so relievedto have, at last, the weight of my affection off you.Feathery at best, a cloakfor warmth, simple affection. Gone are my fingers through your darkspill of hair, the silken skinof your shoulder aglow in

      1 min read

    • Article

      Tessa Castro

      Nov 16, 2022

      IN COMPETITION NO 286 you were invited to write a poem with the title Pudding. I White was told by his gran not to call it ‘afters’. Con Connell's narrator remembered ‘The day that “pudding” changed into “dessert” ’. For Vic Cole, the war was between

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Island (catullus 64)

      Mar 1, 2022

      Back then the evergreens tumbled downriverfrom the glaze-white runoff to the boot-stirred puddlesof amber young men who fulfilled our destiny,who clambered into ships, on horses, and in wagonspainting the newfound landscapes ours.Our calling was nobl

      9 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      Jul 1, 2022

      The embers of a Thousand YearsUncovered by the HandThat fondled them when they were FireWill stir and understand——from Emily Dickinson’s “1383” Remember when we hurriedourselves into the evening’s sacral blaze: Our coal-covered bridal gownsdrenched i

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Pink

      Sep 22, 2023

      The Pink
      1 min read

    • Article

      AUSTRALOPITHECA1 & STARMAN2

      Sep 1, 2019

      The countdown to you begyns with me, deere Starman, when I wander, dumbly, deep into a space hospittable to Hunger. Now, all’s desert. No milk in syte. Just pitifull sand, what shushes as it slydes through your hande to rejoin itself. I’d join myself

      7 min read

    • Article

      A Concerned Citizen

      Nov 5, 2020

      Yes, the world is burning.But I have read the books. I soak it up.Friction that ignites dripping discontent.Spread. Resistance. Righteous insistence. Imapped it all. It's plotted on my wall. Tonight mine is a lonely estate.So grand, so iconic - a fit

      1 min read

    • Article

      From The Archives

      Nov 9, 2023

      From The Archives
      4 min read

    • Article

      Andrew Jefford

      Jan 3, 2024

      Andrew Jefford
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Call Of The Wild

      Nov 30, 2020

      The Call Of The Wild
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Epic Of Gilgamesh

      Jan 1, 2020

      My friends, who can reach heaven? The monster bellows like a river swollen with flood.Many are consumed in his fiery breath. My friends, who can reach heaven? Let us ask the mountain for a sign.Let us cut the spirits from the cedars. My friends, who

      3 min read

    • Article

      Howl Palace

      Sep 15, 2019

      Last week, I finally had to put Howl Palace up for sale. Years of poor financial planning had led to this decision, and I tried to take some comfort in my agent’s belief in a buyer who might show up with an all-cash offer. My agent is a highly organi

      25 min read

    • Article

      Tessa Castro

      May 4, 2022

      IN COMPETITION No 279 you were invited to write a poem called Broken Bottle. Basil Ransome-Davies portrayed himself as ‘The man who dropped his wine in Marks’, by Bateman. Mike Morrison’s narrator found that the wind had knocked from the shelf ‘A nov

      2 min read

    • Article

      Saint Cuthbert’s Incorruptible Body

      Sep 8, 2020

      In the year of our Lord 687, in cause of an early, wet spring, the body of Saint Cuthbert was laid in the ground to rest. On the tomb were figured angels and seraphim of plain but wonderful design. And among these flitted cherubs, like apricots set i

      19 min read

    • Article

      Cul-de-Sac

      Dec 1, 2021

      That old rage for order: how my father drove a square mouthed mower over-and-back, over-and-back, each row of neatly trimmed grass cut just like he told his barber: boy’s short, regular. O pioneer, taming this joke bit of prairie, no bindweed or dog

      5 min read

    • Article

      A Blast From The Past

      Nov 10, 2021

      JUST outside a rambling farmhouse, in the grounds of a prep school in deepest north Oxford, there was a plant. No surprises there, I hear you cry, there were probably quite a few. Yet, this one—with its tall, crinkly, dock-like leaves—held rather mor

      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Venus and Adonis

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Venus and Adonis - William Shakespeare

      Adonis

      Venus and Adonis

      EVEN as the sun with purple-colour'd face

           Had ta'en his last leave of the weeping morn,

           Rose-cheek'd Adonis tried him to the chase;

           Hunting he lov'd, but love he laugh'd to scorn;        4

             Sick-thoughted Venus makes amain unto him,

             And like a bold-fac'd suitor 'gins to woo him.

           'Thrice fairer than myself,' thus she began,

           'The field's chief flower, sweet above compare,        8

           Stain to all nymphs, more lovely than a man,

           More white and red than doves or roses are;

             Nature that made thee, with herself at strife,

             Saith that the world hath ending with thy life.     12

           'Vouchsafe, thou wonder, to alight thy steed,

           And rein his proud head to the saddle-bow;

           If thou wilt deign this favour, for thy meed

           A thousand honey secrets shalt thou know:             16

           Here come and sit, where never serpent hisses;

           And being set, I'll smother thee with kisses:

           'And yet not cloy thy lips with loath'd satiety,

           But rather famish them amid their plenty,             20

           Making them red and pale with fresh variety;

           Ten kisses short as one, one long as twenty:

             A summer's day will seem an hour but short,

             Being wasted in such time-beguiling sport.'         24

           With this she seizeth on his sweating palm,

           The precedent of pith and livelihood,

           And, trembling in her passion, calls it balm,

           Earth's sovereign salve to do a goddess good:         28

             Being so enrag'd, desire doth lend her force

             Courageously to pluck him from his horse.

           Over one arm the lusty courser's rein

           Under her other was the tender boy,                   32

           Who blush'd and pouted in a dull disdain,

           With leaden appetite, unapt to toy;

             She red and hot as coals of glowing fire

             He red for shame, but frosty in desire.             36

           The studded bridle on a ragged bough

           Nimbly she fastens;—O! how quick is love:—

           The steed is stalled up, and even now

           To tie the rider she begins to prove:                 40

             Backward she push'd him, as she would be thrust,

             And govern'd him in strength, though not in lust.

           So soon was she along, as he was down,

           Each leaning on their elbows and their hips:          44

           Now doth she stroke his cheek, now doth he frown,

           And 'gins to chide, but soon she stops his lips;

           And kissing speaks, with lustful language broken,

           'If thou wilt chide, thy lips shall never open.'      48

           He burns with bashful shame; she with her tears

           Doth quench the maiden burning of his cheeks;

           Then with her windy sighs and golden hairs

           To fan and blow them dry again she seeks:             52

             He saith she is immodest, blames her miss;

             What follows more she murders with a kiss.

           Even as an empty eagle, sharp by fast,

           Tires with her beak on feathers, flesh and bone,      56

           Shaking her wings, devouring all in haste,

           Till either gorge be stuff'd or prey be gone;

           Even so she kiss'd his brow, his cheek, his chin,

           And where she ends she doth anew begin.               60

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1