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    The Longer Poems
    The Longer Poems
    The Longer Poems
    Ebook144 pages1 hour

    The Longer Poems

    By William Shakespeare

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    About this ebook

    Although we know him best as a playwright, Shakespeare was also a poet, living as he did in an age when the writing of verse enhanced an author's literary reputation as well as his social standing. It's thought that he turned to poetry early in his career, from 1592-94, while London's playhouses were closed during an outbreak of plague. This collection contains four of the Bard's longer poems, consisting of meditations on the themes of sex, guilt, and death.
    The first of the narrative poems, "Venus and Adonis," portrays the romance between the goddess of love and her handsome swain. Its success led to the publication of "The Rape of Lucrece," which also draws upon ancient Roman legends to recount a darker episode of dishonor and suicide. "A Lover's Complaint" voices the plight of a seduced and abandoned woman, and "The Phoenix and the Turtle" offers an allegory concerning the death of ideal love.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateNov 14, 2018
    ISBN9780486835600
    The Longer Poems
    Author

    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest playwright the world has seen. He produced an astonishing amount of work; 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and 5 poems. He died on 23rd April 1616, aged 52, and was buried in the Holy Trinity Church, Stratford.

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      Book preview

      The Longer Poems - William Shakespeare

      THE LONGER POEMS

      William Shakespeare

      DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC.

      MINEOLA, NEW YORK

      DOVER THRIFT EDITIONS

      GENERAL EDITOR: SUSAN L. RATTINER

      EDITOR OF THIS VOLUME: JANET B. KOPITO

      Copyright

      Copyright © 2018 by Dover Publications, Inc.

      All rights reserved.

      Bibliographical Note

      This Dover edition, first published in 2018, is a new compilation of poems by William Shakespeare, reprinted from standard editions. An introductory Note has been specially prepared for this edition.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Names: Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616.

      Title: The longer poems / William Shakespeare.

      Description: Mineola, New York : Dover Publications, 2018. | Series: Dover thrift editions

      Identifiers: LCCN 2018027659| ISBN 9780486827667 (paperback) | ISBN 0486827666 (paperback)

      Subjects: | BISAC: LITERARY COLLECTIONS / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh. | POETRY / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh.

      Classification: LCC PR2842 .K67 2018 | DDC 821/.3—dc23

      LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018027659

      Manufactured in the United States by LSC Communications

      82766601    2018

      www.doverpublications.com

      Note

      WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE WAS born in late April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, to John Shakespeare and Mary Arden. Because so few authoritative records of Shakespeare’s life exist, much of his biography is conjecture. However, he is believed to have gotten his education in Stratford at the King’s New School, where the Classics were emphasized. Church records show that he married Anne Hathaway when he was eighteen, and he and Anne were the parents of daughter Susanna and twins Hamnet and Judith.

      In his twenties, Shakespeare traveled to London (roughly one hundred miles from his birthplace) and sought to make his name as an actor; in addition, he became a co-owner of the theatrical company the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (later the King’s Men). He took up writing as well, although his efforts were denigrated by the playwright Robert Greene, who attacked Shakespeare as an upstart Crow who was clearly inferior to Greene and Christopher Marlowe and other contemporaries who had received a university education. Nevertheless, the outlier soon was accepted into the London scene, and he thrived—by the close of the sixteenth century, William Shakespeare had achieved great success. His dramatic works produced countless cultural references—the indecision of Hamlet, the romantic attachment of Romeo and Juliet, the relentless plotting of Lady Macbeth, the boisterous comedy of Falstaff, and the pathos of the Merchant of Venice, to name just a few.

      Although Shakespeare is known chiefly for his plays, he was a prolific writer of poetry, producing more than one hundred and fifty sonnets. Four longer poetic works by Shakespeare appear in this collection: Venus and Adonis, A Lover’s Complaint, The Phoenix and Turtle, and The Rape of Lucrece. Venus and Adonis (1593) uses elements from Ovid’s Metamorphoses for its narrative: The goddess of love, Venus, is repeatedly rebuffed by Adonis, with whom she is obsessed. Through her experiences pursuing Adonis, Venus discovers the pain of unrequited love, and Adonis questions whether it is love, or lust, that spurs her on. The nature of love is again examined in A Lover’s Complaint (1609), this time through the framework of a careworn but still youthful woman presenting her sad tale to a stranger. Having fallen prey to the charms of an exceedingly captivating youth—. . . his passion, but an art of craft, / Even there resolved my reason into tears—she laments her naïveté, yet concludes that she could well be taken in again, so strong is the appeal and cunning of her seducer. The Phoenix and Turtle (1601) memorializes the perfect love between two birds, the phoenix and the turtledove. The two are commemorated at their funeral, where the birds’ attachment—So between them love did shine . . . Either was the other’s mine is mourned. The Rape of Lucrece (1594) uses as its source material events from the Roman Republic as reported by Ovid and Livy. Tarquin, the king’s son, hears about the exceptionally virtuous and beautiful wife of his friend and seeks her out. The wife, Lucrece, welcomes the prince. Tarquin then, Pawning his honour to obtain his lust, forces himself upon Lucrece. This rash act sets in motion a tragic conclusion.

      The death of William Shakespeare at the age of fifty-two on April 23, 1616, brought to an end the extraordinary contributions of a larger-than-life figure who infused the Elizabethan theater with laughter and tears and provided a treasure trove of literary wonders for centuries to come.

      Contents

      Venus and Adonis

      A Lover’s Complaint

      The Phoenix and Turtle

      The Rape of Lucrece

      VENUS AND ADONIS

      Vilia miretur vulgus; mihi flavus Apollo

      Pocula Castalia plena ministret aqua.

      TO THE

      RIGHT HONORABLE HENRIE WRIOTHESLEY,

      EARLE OF SOUTHAMPTON, AND BARON OF TITCHFIELD.

      RIGHT HONOURABLE,

      I KNOW not how I shall offend in dedicating my vnpolisht lines to your Lordship, nor how the worlde will censure me for choosing so strong a proppe to support so weake a burthen, onelye if your Honour seeme but pleased, I account my selfe highly praised, and vowe to take aduantage of all idle houres, till I haue honoured you with some grauer labour. But if the first heire of my inuention proue deformed, I shall be sorie it had so noble a god-father: and neuer after eare so barren a land, for fear it yeeld me still so bad a haruest, I leaue it to your Honourable suruey, and your Honor to your hearts content which I wish may alwaies answere your owne wish, and the worlds hopefull expectation.

      Your Honors in all dutie,

      WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

      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 hied him to the chase;

      Hunting he loved, but love he laugh’d to scorn:

      Sick-thoughted Venus makes amain unto him,

      And like a bold-faced suitor ’gins to woo him.

      Thrice fairer than myself, thus she began,

      "The field’s chief flower, sweet above compare,

      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.

      "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:

      Here come and sit, where never serpent hisses,

      And being set, I’ll smother thee with kisses;

      "And yet not cloy thy lips with loathed satiety,

      But rather famish them amid their plenty,

      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."

      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:

      Being so enraged, 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,

      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.

      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:

      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:

      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.

      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:

      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,

      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.

      Forced to content, but never to obey,

      Panting he lies and breatheth in her face;

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