The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare's Poetry

by Patrick Cheney

This Companion provides a full introduction to the poetry of William Shakespeare through discussion of his freestanding narrative poems, the Sonnets, and his plays. Fourteen leading international scholars provide accessible and authoritative chapters on all relevant topics: from Shakespeare's seminal role in the development of English poetry, the wide-ranging practice of his poetic form, and his enigmatic place in print and manuscript culture, to his immersion in English Renaissance politics, religion, classicism, and gender dynamics. With individual chapters on Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, The Passionate Pilgrim, 'The Phoenix and the Turtle', the Sonnets, and A Lover's Complaint, the Companion also includes chapters on the presence of poetry in the dramatic works, on the relation between poetry and performance, and on the reception and influence of the poems. The volume includes a chronology of Shakespeare's life, a note on reference works, and a reading list for each chapter.

Genres: Shakespeare, Literary Criticism, Poetry, Nonfiction

318 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Sammy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Possibly my favourite in this series of Cambridge Companions to the works of the Bard. The role of poetry in society has changed far more in the last 400 years than that of narrative performance, so Shakespeare's poems - particularly the narrative works - are far less read or understood in 2016. I think they're all fascinating (with an especial interest in "The Rape of Lucrece") and it's lovely to see a work that attempts to redress the balance.

The companion looks at each of the major poems but also the role of poetry in Shakespeare's works, his contemporaries, and how it influenced the works of the era. (After all, Shakespeare's own near-contemporaries, such as Marlowe, were largely poets placed on the stage; English-language theatre was only just learning to walk.)

The volume is weakest on the Sonnets, but that's because it's very hard to cover 154 poems in such a medium. It's not really a worry, given how much ink has been spilled on that subject already!