Shakespeare - Sonnets and Poems

Venus and Adonis Story

As Adonis is preparing to go hunting, Venus "seizeth on his sweating palm" and "Backward she push'd him, as she would be thrust" (for purposes of sexual intercourse). We find next that "Panting he lies, and breatheth in her face," while Venus tells him "Be bold to play, our sport is not in sight." She persuades him to kiss her, although Adonis is not very interested, thinking he is too young, and cares only for hunting. After they part, Adonis is soon killed in a hunting accident. The poem contains what may be Shakespeare's most graphic depiction of sexual excitement.

The Rape of Lucrece

Lucrece draws on the story described in both Ovid's Fasti and Livy's history of Rome. In 509 BC, Sextus Tarquinius, son of Tarquin, the king of Rome, raped Lucretia(Lucrece), wife of Collatinus, one of the king's aristocratic retainers. As a result, Lucrece committed suicide. Her body was paraded in the Roman Forum by the king's nephew. This incited a full-scale revolt against the Tarquins led by Lucius Junius Brutus, the banishment of the royal family, and the founding of the Roman republic. Lucrece is described as if she were a work of art, objectified in as if she were a material possession. Tarquin's rape of her is described as if she were a fortress under attackconquering her various physical attributes. Although Lucrece is raped, the poem offers an apology to absolve her of guilt (lines 124046). Like Shakespeare's other raped women, Lucrece gains symbolic value: through her suicide, her body metamorphoses into a political symbol. Shakespeare turns rape into a form of wound or mutilation of Lucrece's flesh. The loss of chastity as a symbolic wound is closely associated to the selfinflicted stab wound which puts an end to Lucrece's life. Tarquin's phallus is indeed recurrently compared to a dagger or sword piercing through Lucrece's flesh. When Tarquin starts contemplating the rape, his sexual impulses are equated with the spirit of a soldier marching on his foe: By reprobate desire so madly led / The Roman lord marcheth to Lucrece' bed (300301). The verb 'to march', describing Tarquin's progression towards Lucrece's bedroom, evokes military movements and the violence of armed combat. The association between the phallus and the blade later becomes quite clear when Tarquin enters Lucrece's chamber and threatens the young woman with his sword.

The Phoenix and the Turtle

The Phoenix and the Turtle is an allegorical poem about the death of ideal love by William Shakespeare. It is widely considered to be one of his most obscure works and has led to many conflicting interpretations. It has also been called "the first great published metaphysical poem".The title "The Phoenix and the Turtle" is a conventional label. As published, the poem was untitled.

A Lover's Complaint
In the poem, the speaker sees a young woman weeping at the edge of a river, into which she throws torn-up letters, rings, and other tokens of love. An old man asks the reason for her sorrow, and she responds by telling him of a former lover who pursued, seduced, and finally abandoned her. She concludes her story by conceding that she would fall for the young man's false charms again.

Who is The Dark Lady ?

The second (and last) set of poems (127 through 154) in Shakespeare's sonnets is addressed to a "Dark Lady." Akin to the search for the identity of the "young man," some of Shakespeare's biographers have assumed that there was, in fact, a Dark Lady with whom the poet was acquainted. Here, however, scholars do not even have the clue of prefatory initials. On the basis of sheer speculation, several young women of Queen Elizabeth I's courtincluding Mary Fitton, Emilia Lanier, and Lucy Morganhave been put forth as historical models for the Dark Lady of Shakespeare's sonnets....

Eminescu si Shakespeare
n creaia lui Shakespeare se gsesc imagini, teme sau motive precum: a) viaa ca vis (din Hamlet: vis al unei umbre i umbra unui vis), n Srmanul Dionis, Memento mori, Se bate miezul nopii, mprat i proletar, Scrisoarea I, Murean i ursitoarele, Stam la fereastra sus, Cu mne zilele-i adaogi, Somnoroase psrele, Iubit dulce, o, m las, Eu nu cred nici n Iehova, Umbra lui Istrate Dabija Voevod, O nelepciune, ai aripi de cear!, Melancolie; b) lumea ca teatru (din Hamlet, Negutorul din Veneia, Furtuna, Cum v place) n Gloss mai ales. Dar, cum justific tefan Avdanei, prezena acestor motive i teme n alte literaturi simultan sau succesiv, se poate explica, mai nti, prin existena unor modele arhetipale de gndire i simire deci pure paralelisme sau analogii.