IndexVenus and Adonis (1593)SummaryExtracts and AnalysisThemesA Lover's Lament (1609)SummaryExcerpts and AnalysisThemesComparisons and Contrasts: Venus and Adonis and the Lament of a loverShakespearean poetry on Love, Comparison and Contrast Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Although Shakespeare is well known for his plays and sonnets, his other poems are less popular, although some of them are quite complex. Here two of his lesser-known love poems are compared: Venus and Adonis, published in 1593, and A Lover's Complaint published in 1609. Venus and Adonis (1593) Summary Inspired by a mythological tale found in Book Ovid, the poem focuses on the refusal of a handsome young man, Adonis, to submit to the amorous advances of Venus. This, of course, is ironic, because Venus herself is the goddess of love. When Cupid accidentally marks Venus with one of his arrows, Venus's infatuation with Adonis increases to the point that she can no longer control herself. Venus begins to follow Adonis, wherever he goes, even on his hunting trips, and eventually even begins to dress like Diana (the goddess of the hunt) to woo Adonis. One day, shortly before Adonis leaves to go hunting, Venus warns him not to hunt dangerous animals, but only small and harmless ones. Naturally, Adonis, having a high opinion of himself, ignores his warnings and stabs a boar. Unfortunately, his spear doesn't hit him well enough and the boar attacks Adonis with its tusks, seriously wounding him. Venus hears Adonis' cries of pain and runs back into the forest, but when she arrives it is too late and Adonis is already dead. Venus becomes extremely sad and watches Adonis' bright red blood spill onto the ground. In honor of him, Venus turns his blood into a dazzling crimson flower. Excerpts and Analysis“Even as the purple-faced sun had taken the last leave of the weeping morning, rosy-cheeked Adonis accompanied him in pursuit; he loved, but he laughed at love, despising it; Venus, sick in thought, makes him love her, and like a bold-faced suitor begins to woo him. "(Verses 1-6) The poem begins with Shakespeare introducing Adonis as a young, handsome, rosy-cheeked youth, as he is known to have been the most attractive male in Greek and Roman mythology. Even in modern literature, there are many allusions to Adonis, as in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, when Willy Loman refers to his sons as "Adonis". The general theme of the poem is represented from the beginning, with the phrase "He loved the hunt, but he laughed at the love with contempt". Adonis has no interest, other than to hunt. Venus is presented as "sickly" in love with him, and begins to try to chase him. Just like a hollow eagle, sharp and fast, it tires with the beak on feathers, flesh and bone, shaking her wings, devouring everything quickly, Till the throat is filled or the prey is gone; she kisses his forehead, his cheek, his chin, and where it ends she begins again 55-60) Adding to the theme of Adonis' disinterest in love, Shakespeare uses the simile of an eagle to represent Venus' attempts to woo Adonis. He writes that just like a hungry eagle, Venus is ravenous and only wants Adonis' love. He emphasizes his unstoppable desire with his comparison. See as she may, she cannot choose but love; and by her beautiful immortal hand swears, from her soft bosom, never to remove it, until she takes respite from her conflicting tears, which have long rained, wetting all her cheeks; And asweet kiss will pay this innumerable debt. (Verses 79-84) Adonis doesn't know what to think of Venus' constant attempts to woo him, as any facial expressions he makes have no effect on Venus' feelings for him ("see how he can..."). In these lines, Venus promises to stay there (“from her tender breast she will never remove”), until Adonis comes to terms with the fact that she is crying. She tries to overcome his indifference towards him, but fails, and seeing this, Adonis offers to redeem her tears for a kiss. After this promise he raised his chin, like a diver peering through a wave, which, being observed, quickly dives; then offers him to give her what she wanted; but when his lips were ready for his pay, he winked and turned his lips another way. (Verses 85-90) Once again, Shakespeare uses bird similes to explain the behavior of the lovers, this time comparing Adonis to a small water bird, which dives into the water to feed. Adonis pretends to want to make fun of Venus, but instead he winks and turns his head away, with the speed of the little "dive-dapper". At this point the love-sick queen began to sweat, for where they lay the shadow had abandoned them, and Titan, tired in the midday heat, looked at them fiercely with a burning eye; wishing that Adonis had his own team to lead, so as to be like him and alongside Venus. (Verses 174-180) Much later According to the poem, it is noon and Titan, the god who uses his chariot every day to drag the sun across the sky, is high up looking down on Venus and Adonis. He is exhausted by his own heat which, coincidentally, is Venus's problem: she feels intense love, which is her attribute. Titan in the meantime sees Adonis and would like to be in his place. Titan's position in the poem is meant to emphasize the extent to which Venus falling in love with a man is particularly distinctive. Here, Venus, the goddess that all other gods usually chase, is ignored by the one man she truly desires. And now Adonis, with a lazy cheerfulness, and with a heavy, dark and unpleasant eye, his menacing eyebrows are overwhelming. his beautiful sight, like misty vapors when they stain the sky, souring his cheeks cries: "Damn, no more love! The sun burns my face: I must turn away." painted idol, gray and dead image, contented statue except one eye, thing like a man, but not born of a woman! You are not a man, even if you have the complexion of a man, for men will also kiss according to their own direction. "(Verses) 181-192) Finally Adonis breaks down. He will no longer tolerate Venus' harassment. He tells Venus that she must leave. Venus takes revenge, comparing Adonis to a stone cold picture, although it is "well painted", not he has sense of emotions and is lifeless. He also says that he may look like a man, but he is not human at all, due to his lack of feelings for her. He uses the word "complexion" to refer to Adonis' outward appearance, but he says that though he may seem like a man, he isn't, because men are naturally inclined to desire, and he obviously isn't. "Too bad," she cries, 'some favor, some remorse!' He leaps and hurries to his horse. (Verses 257-258) Venus tells Adonis to show some kindness, but he ignores her, leaping onto his horse.' You were gone, - he said, - dear boy, before this, but you told me that you would hunt the boar Oh, keep informed: you don't know what it is With the tip of the javelin a rough pig to gore, the. Whose fangs are never sheathed. He sharpens again, Like a mortal butcher intent on killing (Verses 614-618) Much later, Adonis returns and is talking to Venus again, when she warns him not to hunt thewild boar, because it is dangerous.' And more than that, it presents to my eyes the image of an angry and irritating boar, under whose sharp tusks on its back lies an image like you, all stained with blood; whose blood on the fresh flowers that are shed makes them bow with pain and lower their heads. 'What should I do, seeing you really like this, who trembles at the imagination? The mere thought makes my weak heart bleed, and fear teaches it divination: I prophesy your death, my living pain, if you meet the boar. Tomorrow. Venus prophesies Adonis' death if he meets the boar, and all that follows, including nature's sadness at Adonis' potential death, if he fights the boar and loses, as seen in the phrase "whose blood on the fresh fallen flowers they make them fall in pain and hang their heads, mutual overthrow of the mortal species! For being dead, Beauty is killed with him, And, Beauty dead, black Chaos returns (Verses 1015-1020) Much later, in poem, Adonis leaves, and Venus is left alone to ponder whether he listened to her or not. She first believed that he would kill himself trying to hunt the boar, but now she tries to convince herself that she was foolish to believe that he was dead.His death, he explains, would mean the death of beauty itself, and from that, the increase of chaos usual white lily was drenched with purple tears that his wound cried: no flower was near, no herb, herb, leaf or weed, but it stole his blood and seemed to bleed with him. (Verses 1052-156) Venus finally encounters Adonis' body in a forest clearing. He observes the wound the boar made on Adonis' torso and its surroundings, noting that there was not a single piece of flora in sight, only its bright red blood on the ground.' Alas, poor world, what a treasure you have lost! What face remains alive that is worth seeing? Whose language is music now? What can you boast about in the past or anything subsequent? The flowers are sweet, their colors fresh and cared for; but true sweet beauty lived and died with him. (Verses 1076-1080) Venus cries sadly about how the world has changed and lost a great treasure. She tells herself that no other face was worth seeing, or no other voice as sweet as hers. She talks about how the flowers are fresh and sweet, but the true beauty died when he did. And in his blood that lay spilled on the ground a purple flower appeared, with squares of white, which closely resembles his pale cheeks, and the blood that falls in circles on their whiteness remained. (Verses 1168-1170) In these lines, Venus turns the spilled blood of Adonis into a flower, and Shakespeare compares the colors of the flower to the pale cheeks of Adonis. So world-weary, she goes, And yokes her silver doves, with whose ready aid their mistress, on horseback, through the empty skies in her light chariot is carried swiftly, keeping course to Paphos, where their queen means to hide and not be seen. (Verses 1190 - 1194)Finally, in the last lines of the poem, Venus shows the utmost sadness towards the death of her unshared lover. She flies through the sky, hiding in Paphos where she wishes not to be seen in such a state of desperation. Themes After reading the poem, two contrasting themes immediately emerge: one might see Adonis' death as a pathetic consequence of his cold rejection of love, or on the other hand, one might think that Venus's condemnation and desperation at the end of the poem they condemn the primordial instinct of love. Traditional approaches to understanding the theme of Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis have generally focused on themoral elements of the piece, and Shakespeare's approach to understanding the elements of desire. One of the main themes of the poem also seems to be cautionary, warning of the dangers of extreme love. The poem does this by making clear the stark contrast between virtuous love and lust through the death of Adonis. These two seemingly opposing ethical concepts of love are Shakespeare's juxtaposition of the two in the poem which emphasizes the complexity of each and the thin line that separates them. For example, Adonis may personify the ethical choice between duty and lust. By rejecting Venus' advance, Adonis makes a choice in favor of responsibility. Another theme is that of the intensity of female desires. Despite conservative objections to the poem's glorification of sensuality, it was immensely popular, and this theme can be seen in some of Shakespeare's other works, such as A Midsummer Night's Dream. Shakespeare examines the somewhat absurd way in which women's desires are often portrayed. Opponents to the legitimacy of this theme often argue that in the original mythology, Venus was scratched by Cupid's arrow, thus partially removing Venus's guilt for her desires. A Lover's Complaint (1609) Summary As the title suggests, this poem is a poem of complaint, a style that was popularized in the medieval and Renaissance periods. Authors of this type of poetry often told stories of unrequited love, personal misfortunes, injustices in society, poverty, or other social issues. The events of the poem take place in rural England, where the narrator of the poem observes a woman as she complains about a man who seduced her and then left her. The narrator hears the woman's cries from a distant hill and listens. The woman cries into a handkerchief, and although she has outgrown her youth, the narrator notes that she still retains her beauty. The narrator watches the woman's cries attract a "reverend man" who is nearby and herding cattle. The man sits next to her and asks her what's wrong and offers his help in the situation. The narrator continues to listen as the woman complains to an old man about a young, handsome, sharp-tongued man who uses women for his own lustful purposes. The poem is in iambic pentameter with a rhyme scheme of ababbcc. Excerpts and Analysis From off a hill whose concave womb recast a plaintive tale from a sister valley, my spirits attuned to witness this double voice, and down I lay to enumerate the sad tale; first long I saw a flighty maiden all pale, tearing papers, breaking sounds twice, Storming her world with the wind and rain of sorrow. (1st stanza) The tale begins with the narrator sitting on a hill with a cave-like formation, so that he can hear everything that happens nearby very clearly, because it echoes on the concave side of the mountain. From a nearby “fraternal” valley, he hears the echo of a girl's voice and decides to lie down and listen. Identify where the sound is coming from, and spy on the sad woman. A thousand favors from a maund she drew of amber, crystal, and pearly jet, which one by one she threw into a river, on whose weeping bank she was placed; Like usury, which applies wet on wet, or the hands of the monarch who do not let generosity fall where need cries some, but where excess begs for everything. (Sixth stanza) As the narrator watches, he takes lavish gifts from his basket and throws them one by one into the river. “Apply wet on wet,” refers to the woman's tears falling into the river. These often bathed her in her flowing eyes, and often kissed, and often began to tear; they shouted "O false blood! you record of lies, which oneunapproved testimony ports; here the ink would have seemed blacker and more damned." Having said this, in full anger the verses that she rents, great discontent thus breaks their content. for the many love letters of the man who hurt her, for the whom she cries, bathing them with tears from her "flowing eyes". Suddenly she is filled with anger and begins to scream at the letters, calling them false and "unapproved" or unproven (the man had not demonstrated his love for her ) She cries that the ink should have been blacker to match the man's offenses against her. In her unhappiness, she finally realizes the falsity of the letters' contents the insult of many devastating hours, let this not tell your judgment that I am old; not age, but pain". , has power over me: I could still have been an unfolding flower, fresh to myself, if I had self-applied love to myself and to no other love beside. (Stanza 11 ) The narrator watches as the old man cautiously approaches her and she begins to tell him her story. She says that although she may observe that her hopes have been dashed, she is not old. She explains how it was not age that did it its effect on her, but the pain of the situation she found herself in had its effect on her, comparing herself to a flower, saying that she could be fresh and young, and live only for herself, without worrying of love matters.His qualities were as beautiful as his form, for he was a virgin and therefore free; so with his authorized youth, livery falsehood in a pride of truth. (Stanza 15) The girl is now describing the personality of the man who courted her. She describes him almost affectionately, saying that his personal qualities were almost as beautiful as he was. He was soft-spoken, as described by the words "virgin-tongued." But he could also be virile and furious if provoked, "if men moved him, it would be such a storm." The messiness of his boyish charms courted her, and his immature and childish personality was humane enough to mask his false intentions. strong reason,To his advantage he woke up and slept again:To make those who cry, those who laughed laugh,He had the dialect and a different skill,Capturing all the passions in his art of will:(Stanza 18)Continues to describe his style to speak, and how it fascinated her. He asks her philosophical questions and questions everything in life, her answers are profound and seemingly well thought out. When she asks her questions, he responds quickly and the reasoning behind it is logical. She had the ability for language, which is what particularly courted her. And for a long time I held my city in these conditions, until he began to besiege me: "Dear girl, have mercy on my suffering youth, and do not be afraid of my holy vows: This oath has never been spoken to you; for feasts of 'love I have been invited, until now I have never invited, nor have I ever courted. (Stanza 26) After the woman finishes complaining about After a while, the old man has some time to impart his wisdom to her: the tells the story from a man's point of view. He says he has been called to love before, even without inviting it he has committed blood mistakes (physical acts), which are not related to love or mind.'O father! what hell of witchcraft lies in the little sphere of a particular tear, but with the flooding of the eyes, what stony heart will not wear the water? What breast so cold that is not warmed here? hot anger, from here comes both fire and cold extinction. (Room 42)..