The Poems: Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, The Phoenix and the Turtle, The Passionate Pilgrim, A Lover's Complaint

by William Shakespeare, John Roe (Editor)

This second edition of Shakespeare's narrative poems contains an introductory section on recent critical interpretations. Fully annotated and introduced, it includes all the poems which can be confidently assigned to Shakespeare, excluding the Sonnets: Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, The Phoenix and the Turtle, The Passionate Pilgrim and A Lover's Complaint. An updated reading list completes the edition.

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

326 pages, Paperback

Published June 12, 2006

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

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

The two long narrative poems, Venus & Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece, form part of my reading of Shakespeare's works in (estimated) chronological order of writing.

In 1592, plague (and possibly political machinations using plague as a convenient excuse to subdue free speech) led to the closure of London's theatres for almost two years. At the time, this was terrible news for Shakespeare who, with his Henry VI trilogy and Richard III had just had a series of great successes and must have been itching to get on with whatever was next planned, but all this was replaced with either expulsion to the provinces or enforced leisure.

That Shakespeare was making other writers uncomfortable and more than a touch jealous is clear from Robert Greene's peevish "Groats-Worth of Witte" in which he complains about uneducated, non-university educated actor players who have the audacity to - good grief, the cheek - *write*!

"for there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tygers hart wrapt in a Players hyde, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blanke verse as the best of you: and beeing an absolute Johannes fac totum, is in his owne conceit the onely Shake-scene in a countrey."

The reference to "tygers hart wrapt in a players hyde" is a direct misquote of the line from Henry VI about Margaret D'Anjou, "a tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide". So - it's clear that Shakespeare was not only famous, he was ruffling many authors' feathers who didn't consider him U enough to enter their esteemed society (a snobbishness that continues to this day among those who insist that Shakespeare didn't exist, but was actually a nobleman's (some even bizarrely believe it was Queen Elizabeth herself) pseudonym.

However ... the enforced break turned out for posterity to be of huge value, because Shakespeare used to time to hone his art, especially his poetry, and his ability to put great ideas and thoughts into brief beautifully-turned words. When he returned to plays his obsession with seneca-style revenge tragedy had gone and he blossomed into the full-flowering of his middle-period, and thanks for this can largely be put towards the time, thought and energy put into these poems.

So, on to the poems themselves. I must say that before I read these I'd never read any of Shakespeare's poetry beyond a selection of the Sonnets (which will come later in this project). In 1593 and 1594 these two poems were published, dedicated to the Earl of Southampton who appears to have patronised the writer and they were an enormous success. Venus and Adonis was the first work to appear on bookstands with William Shakespeare's name emblazoned on the title-page and it went through 7 editions in the next fews years - an enormous popularity when you take into account the low-level of literacy, lack of leisure time to dedicate to reading outside the upper and merchant classes and high expense of buying a printed book compared with going to the theatre. So one could say that up until the mid-1590s Shakespeare was much better known as "the writer of Venus and Adonis" than he was as a writer of plays.

The two poems deal with similar subjects - that of unreciprocated lust - but they are treated in drastically different ways. Venus and Adonis is an comic-erotic poem in which Venus falls head over heels for a prudish, inexperienced boy who is interested only in hunting and finds girls a boring distraction leading him down the primrose path to sin. Venus uses all her metaphysical reasoning (reminscent of Donne's poems like The Flea) to persuade him to love her, physically and emotionally, but despite her strength (she plucks him from his horse and carries him to a grassy bank) the closest she comes to ravishing him is when she falls to the floor in a swoon at his rude chiding and passionately kisses him as he tries to revive her with the kiss of life. The poem, with its erotic language and titilating description was a big hit with young courtiers who all had a copy hidden in their breast to read to their loves or late at night alone, makes a change towards the end though and when Adonis is gored to death by a wild boar (metaphorically raped) Venus' grief is real and never mocked and hugely moving.

The Rape of Lucrece is completely different. Whereas the idea of the goddess of Love ravishing a young man can be treated with levity, the forceful gagging and rape of Lucrece by the Roman king's son Tarquin cannot possibly be treated in the same manner. This poem is an extended grave analysis of the psychological trauma caused by rape - the self-loathing, guilt, self-blame, the irrational and unfounded reasoning by the victim that it was their fault that they somehow brought it on themselves, the idea that everyone can read what's happened on their face. It's all here in the poem, all expressed with a formal and (already) archaic rhyme scheme of ABABBCC.

Echoes of these poems are either heard in earlier plays (the reference to unreleased love / lust being like a stoppered oven that will explode reminds you of the lines "Sorrow concealed, like an oven stopp'd, Doth burn the heart to cinders where it is." in Titus Andronicus - and the guilty, lustful, sinful walk of Tarquin towards Lucrece's bedroom is directly referenced in not only Macbeth, but also Cymbeline and Julius Ceasar.

Ultimately, I was surprised by these poems. They're a touch formal for modern tastes, but I don't believe that their importance within the development of Shakespeare's art can be overstated.

[Katsuro · Rating 3 out of 5]

There. I did it. I finished his complete works. I almost can't believe I did it, but I did.

I'm having crisps today. It's a special occasion, after all.

[payton ✿ · Rating 2 out of 5]

alright i read all of shakespeare’s major poems. all of the sonnets too. mostly because i had to for my shakespeare’s poetry class. 🙃

here’s the thing, i don’t get shakespeare. i don’t get renaissance lit. you might ask, how are you surviving studying english then? because wow, shakespeare is studied a LOT within this major… and the answer is i don’t know.

i recognize the foundation that shakespeare built for literature, but unfortunately, it just isn’t my cup of tea. i can get behind shakespeare’s plays more than his poetry, and i know i am devastating my professor by saying this. sorry. 😮

i’m all about poems, movies, books, plays, etc. that display the human condition… which is precisely what shakespeare did and why his work is still taught today. but… man it just wasn’t fun reading any of this. renaissance reading is just laborious and tough to do.

[Chris Webster · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are surely the most underrated works by Shakespeare. Venus and Adonis and the Rape of Lucrece are both astonishingly good, so much so that I can't believe they're not taught more (or maybe they are?) I guess the difference is that they're much less subtle than the most brilliant moments of the tragedies, but still, their sheer rhetorical power is insane.
I may have found my new favorite line in Shakespeare: "For one sweet grape who will the vine destroy?", as Tarquinius makes his way to Lucrece's room. What a poem.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read Venus and Adonis last night, and it's now my absolute favorite Poem. It's simply Brilliant. Even though I've been a fan of Shakspeares for about ever, he really out did himself on this one. It was just so freaking INTENSE!

[Ben Truong · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Poems: Venus and Adonis, the Rape of Lucrece, the Phoenix and the Turtle, the Passionate Pilgrim, a Lover's Complaint is a collection of all five poems that are attributed to William Shakespeare (sans the sonnets).

Venus and Adonis (★★★★☆) is a narrative poem, which tells the story of Venus, the goddess of Love and her unrequited love and of her attempted seduction of Adonis, an extremely handsome young man, who would rather go hunting. The poem is pastoral, and at times erotic, comic, and tragic. It contains discourses on the nature of love, and observations of nature.

The Rape of Lucrece (★★★★☆) is a narrative poem about the legendary Roman noblewoman Lucretia. It retells the historical event – the rape of the noblewomen Lucrece, which was the cause of a rebellion that overthrew the Roman monarchy and led to the transition of Roman government from a kingdom to a republic.

The Phoenix and the Turtle (★★★☆☆) is an allegorical poem about the death of ideal love. The poem describes a funeral arranged for the deceased Phoenix and Turtledove, respectively emblems of perfection and of devoted love. It goes on to state that the love of the birds created a perfect unity which transcended all logic and material fact and concludes with a prayer for the dead lovers.

The Passionate Pilgrim (★★★☆☆) is an anthology of twenty poems, which was collected and attributed to a W. Shakespeare, but only five of which are considered authentically Shakespearean (I, II, III, V, and XVI), three of which are from Love's Labour's Lost.

A Lover's Complaint (★★★★☆) is a narrative poem about a young woman weeping at the edge of a river and throwing many tokens of love into the river. An old man nearby approaches the woman and asks the reason for her sorrow and she responds by telling him of a former lover who pursued, seduced, and finally abandoned her.

These poems are written rather well. The narrative poems – especially the longer ones are written better than the others. The subject matter of the narrative poems and to an extent the allegorical poem: The Phoenix and the Turtle, show the darker side of love – if one could call them love. The outlier of the poems is The Passionate Pilgrim, which the twenty poems have a greater range.

This Cambridge University Press edition of the anthology has an introductory essay written by John Roe from the University of York, textual notes and analysis, supplementary notes, and a additional reading list.

All in all, The Poems: Venus and Adonis, the Rape of Lucrece, the Phoenix and the Turtle, the Passionate Pilgrim, a Lover's Complaint is a nice collection of Shakespearean poems attributed to him with a good analysis within.

[Akhilesh Sharma · Rating 5 out of 5]

"There are certain signs to know,
Faithful friend from flatt'ring foe."

[Марија Андреева · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great work! I loved the poems in this collection and I enjoyed them very much, especially Venus and Adonis!

[Lydia · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be more definative, this is not a bad selection of poems, but the material is rather harsh, especially for being about love, as two of the poems Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece deal with passion that is not love though often given that title. This is something that I have always liked about Shakespeare's writting, though he deals with the unsavory side of humanity, when he is writting about lust and passion he doesn't claim it is real love. He shows it for what it is, selfishness. In that way, these poems on love are really good, because every single time the character in the wrong makes a plea for their lust being love, another character will always call them out on the lie with a great reply; one of my favorites being Adonis' below.
"'Love comforteth like sunshine after rain,
But Lust's effect is tempest after sun;
Love's gentle spring doth always fresh remain,
Lust's winter comes ere summer half be done;
Love surfeits not, Lust like a glutton dies;
Love is all truth, Lust full of forged lies.'"

Content notes: no language issues, save that some words may be un-intelligable to the non-Shakespearian reader (and to avid Shakespeare readers, but by now we know to look them up or figure from context). Sensuality issues are rampant. Venus attempts to rape Adonis, Lucrece is raped under duress and all the other poems hint at sexual relations before marriage. On top of that is the usual Shakespearian double speak where words can be taken at face value or as bawdy undertones. Violence-wise, Adonis dies by a wild boar and Lucrece commits suicide to escape from her shame. Neither of these is graphic in the normal sense, but Shakespeare does love having blood "speak" so it is very prevelant. Other notes, female readers may have issues with imagery of women being the eviler sex as some of the later poems hint, but keep in mind the speaker is supposed to be a dissatisfied lover and is rather annoyed with his lady.

On a personal note, having completed these poems, I have now read all Shakespeare atributed materials that can be found by the general public! Yes, I do feel rather accomplished!

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

The diversity of poems in this collection, some of them rather more alien to the modern reader than Shakespeare's plays or sonnets, makes rating this book difficult. The Passionate Pilgrim is a very uneven miscellany, only some of the contents of which are by Shakespeare. The metaphysical allegory of The Phoenix and the Turtle is intriguing, but difficult to penetrate, as is the narrative of A Lover's Complaint; the editor's suggestion that this poem may be unfinished seems very plausible. John Roe's comprehensive and academic introduction tackles many of the complexities, but does not really succeed in making the poems themselves more accessible, and I found that although this edition provides copious notes, it fails to gloss several lines that I would like to have had explained.

The two longer and better-known narrative poems are much more appealing than the lesser works. Although the close of its narrative seems rather perfunctory, The Rape of Lucrece - which, as Jonathan Bate points out in Shakespeare and Ovid, is dominated by a tragic heroine who "gets to speak more lines than any other female persona in any other individual work of Shakespeare" - contains some stunning moments, especially in Lucrece's railing against Time, Night, and Opportunity, and in the description of the destruction of Troy. Some knowledge of the Elizabethan formal rhetoric of pathos is probably necessary for a full appreciation of the poem, and something similar could be said for Venus and Adonis, but its sensual exuberance and lively mix of comedy and tragedy make this poem hard to resist. Watching the beautiful but bashful and pouting Adonis do his best to fight off the arguments and less-subtle physical advances of the smitten, love-sick Venus, whose face "doth reek and smoke" with the uncontrollable fury of lust, is very amusing, but also asks a question: Where would our sympathies lie should the female and male roles of seducer and object of love/lust be reversed, as indeed they usually are in more familiar narrative and lyrical convention?

[Niky]

Read 'The Phoenix and the Turtle' on 8-08-2010
I can say that it's about a phoenix and a turtle dove and about love. I'm not so good in interpret poems; I find it hard enough in Dutch so English is obviously even harder for me. So I don't know my opion about this poems. I'll probably re-read it.

[Amara Thornton · Rating 4 out of 5]

some of shakespeare's non-sonnet poems. excellent.

[Mary]

I must admit I didn't read all of these. Just Rape of Lucrece for class. Interesting though. Amazingly, I've never read any of Bill's longer poems before.

[Shreya Inks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice one, must read.

[Andrew Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

He's the only writer I fear.

[John W. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Venus and Adonis and the Rape of Lucrece give a very different picture of Shakespeare than his plays. In many ways more traditional than his plays but works that should not be overlooked.

[Ella · Rating 4 out of 5]

On to the final plays!
The Shakespeare Project: 34

[Karen Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

and with that I've completed The Shakespeare 2020 Project. https://iandoescher.com/shakespeare/
What a wonderful way to wait out the plague.