8-3Poetry

Prepared by Laura H
Poetry is like a song; it sings to the heart, and the mind. The way it is crafted makes you immediately fall under the spell created by its author. Shakespeare, being the mastermind that he was and forever will be, had his share of poetry. His body of work was one that consisted mostly of sonnets, (those which he was best known for,) and some other free verse poems. He has written a countless number of poems, but some researchers are unsure if all of the works are rightfully his. Therefore, no one is absolutely positive is some of the works he is best known for were even written by him. Nevertheless, they still hold a great importance in the history of Shakespeare.

There were an uncountable amount of poems written by Shakespeare, so I will just name some of the ones that are prevalent in America today. I read about these poems and sonnets from the article Shakespeare's Poetry, by J.M Pressley. Venus and Adonis was a poem written about, what else, two people that fell in love. It is said that this poem is the one that jump-started his career as a poet. It was one of the most popular poems in Shakespearean England. He came up with the idea for the poem after reading a section of Metamorphosis, where Venus is described as the lover of Adonis, but is then killed in a hunting accident. Shakespeare then changed the story, and made it so that Venus rejected Adonis' love, which made the poem a funny and ironic one. This was of course the reason that it was so popular. The Rape of Lucrese, which was published a year later, was said to be the companion poem for Venus and Adonis. The poem was based on a change in Roman rule. He focused on when the Tarquins no longer were the leading force, and Rome decided to elect its rulers. The Rape of Lucrese is also centered on a man's desire for a woman he cannot have. It is also believed that Lucrese was the "grave laborer" that was mentioned in Venus and Adonis. Another famous poem by Shakespeare is The Phoenix and the Turtle. Not much in known where Shakespeare’s exactly got the idea, but much is known on what it is about. A Phoenix, which is a mythological creature, is usually characterized as an animal that consumes itself in fire. The Phoenix can either be portrayed as a male or a female, but no one really knows what gender it’s supposed to be in The Phoenix and the Turtle. The turtle mentioned in the title is a turtledove, which of course symbolizes peace. The dove is usually a female, which makes you think that the Phoenix is a male. No one knows! Even though Shakespeare’s poems are hard to understand, and have language in them that seems foreign, they still reach us as if they were easier to understand than a children’s book.