The Sonnets and Narrative Poems - the Complete Non-Dramatic Poetry

by William Shakespeare, Sylvan Barnet (Editor)

With an introduction by W.H. Auden and commentary from Helen Vendler, among others, this volume presents all of Shakeseare's non-dramatic poetry in one place.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Shakespeare, Fiction, Literature, British Literature

448 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI and I of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs, and even certain fringe theories as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminge and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".

Reviews

[Alp Turgut · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shakespeare'in Homeros, Virgilius ve Ovidius'un izinden giderek kaleme aldığı destansı şiirleri ve aşk sonelerini okuyucuya sunan "Aşk ve Anlatı Şiirleri / Poems of Love and Narration", destansı şiirlerle Shakespeare'in ne kadar yetenekli olduğunu bir kere daha kanıtlayan bir eser. "Venüs ile Adonis" eseriyle güzellik tanrıçasının isteksiz bir genci baştan çıkarmak uğrundaki ısrarlı çabalarını, "Lükres'in İğfali"yle kocasına sadık soylu bir kadına şehvetten gözü dönmüş bir prensin tecavüzünün öyküsünü bizlere sunan kitabın sonlarına doğru yer verilen Shakespeare'e ait olduğu şüpheli soneler ise ne yazık ki yeterince başarılı olmamakla beraber eserin de değerini biraz aşağılara çekiyor. Shakespeare'i yazar olarak daha iyi tanıyabilmek adına kesinlikle okunmalı.

25.07.2019
İstanbul, Türkiye

Alp Turgut

http://www.filmdoktoru.com/kitap-labo...

[Oguz Akturk · Rating 4 out of 5]

YouTube kanalımda Shakespeare'in hayatı, mutlaka okunması gereken kitapları ve kronolojik okuma sırası hakkında bilgi edinebilirsiniz: https://youtu.be/rGxh2RVjmNU

Shakespeare'i tanımak ve onun yazdığı ilk yazıları okumak mı istiyorsun? O zaman Aşk ve Anlatı Şiirleri'nden başlamak senin için iyi ve isabetli bir başlangıç olabilir.

1593 yılındaki Venüs ve Adonis, 1594 yılındaki Lükres'in İğfali, 1601 yılındaki Anka ile Kumru ve 1609 yılındaki Bir Aşıkın Yakınması eserlerini içeren bu kitap, Shakespeare'in esas Shakespeare olmadan önceki zamanlarında hangi antik metinlerden etkilenip onları kendi Shakespeare yolculuğu için nasıl kullanacağı konusunda spoilerlar da veriyor aslında bize.

Venüs ile Adonis eserinde aslında Shakespeare'in antik metinlerden nasıl beslendiğini görebileceğimiz gibi ileriki oyunlarında kullanacağı Homeros ve Ovidius esinlenmelerini de nasıl yapabileceğinin sınırlarını görebilirsiniz.

Lükres'in İğfali eserinde Tarquinius karakterini gördüğünüz zaman belki ilerideki bir Othello karakterinin parçasını, Titus Andronicus kitabının oluşumunu da görebilirsiniz rahatlıkla. Cinsellik ve kıskançlığın aynı potada eritilmesi Shakespeare'in erken dönem eserlerinden olgunluk dönem eserlerine kadar pek çok oyununa etki etmiştir zira.

Yazarın edebiyat hayatındaki başlangıç eserleri olduğu için ve bunları da 29-30 yaşlarında yazdığı için edebi toyluğu olduğu aşikar ama insanın o yaşlarda bile böyle metinler yazabilmesi muhteşem bence.

Eğer Shakespeare’e bir yerden başlamak istiyorsan Aşk ve Anlatı Şiirleri, Veronalı İki Soylu Delikanlı, Hırçın Kız, Titus Andronicus, Yanlışlıklar Komedyası ve Güller Savaşı’nı konu alan 7 tarihi oyununu okuyarak başlayabilirsin.

[G.D. Master · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shakespeare’s sonnets, all 154, are a must have for anybody academically or professionally involved with the English language. Shakespeare’s sonnet form is a mechanical staple for poets. With its three rhyming quatrains and couplet ending, the Shakespearian sonnet lends itself well to formal argumentation: claim, premises, inference, and conclusion. Many of the poems argue for a young man to quit squandering his life away and find a woman to love and procreate with. Other sonnets muse on love, women, writing, and immortality. Shakespeare’s use of demarcated English, like “Thee, Thou,” and elision used for words and phrases, can be challenging for students and many recreational readers, but with time readers can appreciate Shakespeare’s genius for fitting all manner of English into his meter. Often Shakespeare is noted for his iconic plays, but for some students it may be less difficult to start with Shakespeare’s sonnets and begin to acquire a primer for his poetic style, which is applied in his plays. Rhyme is important in Shakespeare’s sonnets. While rhyme has fallen out of vogue for most twenty-first century poets, it was coveted to a challenging, even arduous, extent during Shakespeare’s time. Shakespeare’s plays have iambic pentameter meter in common with his sonnets, but do not have their disciplined approach to rhyming. Given either form, sonnets or plays, Shakespeare has poetic mechanics covered, mastered, and unequalled. Shakespeare’s sonnets are as entertaining as they are a challenge to analyze. His sonnet’s are not difficult to read and should not be beyond a secondary student’s understanding. It is simply a matter of recreational readers taking the time to sit down with Shakespeare and read him in small doses until his work can be casually grasped and enjoyed in larger amounts.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has some very famous verses in it but it is nice to fit the quotes you know to the narrative poem. A lot of the sonnets I've read and liked before but I had no idea Shakespeare created narrative poems and they are good. Love the musicality of his poetry and how that reflects the stories he tells.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

What am I rating, Shakespeare or the notes that go with this edition? If I could write one sentence as memorable as 1000 by Shakespeare, I would deserve five star ratings on everything I do forever. But his sonnets have a quiet power that doesn't leap out like, say, the grief in Lear or the discordance of Hamlet. They are so exquisitely formal that they draw the reader from the content to the hints and suggestions and insights (if he follows his inner ear) in ways that only arise to consciousness later on. And they do so like nothing else I've read apart from Spencer and Chaucer in English.

At least I think that is what is going to happen. Now I have to read them.

[James Violand · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can you say that hasn't been said about the works of one of the most brilliant minds who ever lived? All superlatives elude me. Only the Ancient Greek playwrights are his equals. All others pale in comparison. Unfortunately, so many are turned-off to Shakespeare because of their introduction to him in high school. What a pity. Shakespeare is to be watched! Reading him is a poor substitute. If you can readily understand the English language of his day, he is easy to read, but few are adept at this.

[Benjamin Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

If only I could still quote from this book off the top of my head, I would feel far more cultured and worldly. Nevertheless, many of these sonnets are sufficiently easy to read in the 21st century that one doesn't have to strain themselves to see the beauty and the truth behind them.

[Siera Mae · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay so the second time around they made WAY more sense. 30 and 60 remain special to me. A reading group was really helpful for this, so was marginalia. I need to know - how do you possess these by memory?!?!

[Adam J. M. Eagleton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every human being should read this at some point in their lives. It will enrich them, as it did me.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoying the narrative poem Venus and Adonis at the moment. Great stuff.

[Mugren Ohaly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only read the sonnets

[Rusten · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s Shakespeare.

[Gilbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

What more need be said ?

[rin. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Words so fancy and classy, I started twerking cuz I wasn't familiar with most of the terms in the poems IJBOL. Despite my limited vocabulary, i still enjoyed the book.

[Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading The Rape of Lucrece

I remembered this as being less immediate than 'Venus and Adonis'. I felt it was much more 'classical' and more austere. This time around I was struck by the powerful narrative and especially by the vividness of the workings of the minds of Lucrece and Tarquin.

I was very happy to have the chance to encounter this again.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid anthology of Shakespeare's collected poetry. The secondary sources are taken from important books of literary criticism and the inclusion of more 'remote' poems like "The Phoenix and the Turtle" was a nice addition. One disappointment is the absence of Shakespeare's "Funeral Elegy" -- a poem that would have fit in here nicely.

[David Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sonnets are endlessly inventive, if sometimes obscure, especially to modern ears. The narrative poems are very different from each other. The Rape of Lucrece and The Phoenix and Turtle are the standouts, the others landing on the formal, dull side. Shakespeare's plays are the rightful focus of our interest, but his poems are a legacy in themselves.

[Meaghan]

This is a great book that has tons of bang to shakespeare!

[Juris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I made an error in my last review. Will update as soon as I get to a real computer instead of this phone.

[keereads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5