Shakespeare Love Poems

Shakespeare love poems

Book Review for Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet for Kids

I’ve been interested in this book for a long time. Instead of talking about Shakespeare love poems, this book is about Romeo and Juliet, one of Shakespeare’s most famous romantic plays.

Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet for Kids grabbed my eye from the start. I love the idea of teaching young children Shakespeare, and making it short, simple, and fun, so that kids can really appreciate Shakespeare and enjoy it.

So finally i decided to get myself a copy, and I thought I’d write a review about it.

Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet for Kids is a short book which has 3 scripts of Romeo and Juliet for children to act out, so it is simplified and shortened. This a great idea so that kids can understand Shakespeare and relate to it. There are 3 versions of the play, one for a small group size of 6-11, one for a larger group size of 9-13, and one for a large group size of 14-18+. I think is is clever how each group size has a different number of characters to fit it. The dialogue for each character is then split up so that everyone has a fair part in the play.

Presentation

Firstly, the presentation is excellent. You can see on the front cover there is a fun, colourful picture displaying Romeo courting Juliet. The book is a nice handbook size, ready to fit in your back pocket. The font is large and easy to read and it is in a fun font so the kids can easily read if they are using the book for rehearsal, or if they want to enjoy it at home.

Content

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Shakespeare Love Poems

Sonnet 138 Analysis

Used under creative commons from ell brown

Sonnet 138 is one of the famous Shakespeare sonnets. It has a very simple theme. Basically, this Shakespeare love sonnet talks about how the poet’s mistress (the dark lady) cheats on him and lies all the time, and the poet tells lies to her as well. Their whole relationship is based on lies. Because of its one simple theme, this is a fairly easy Shakespeare love poem to understand.

1st Quatrain

This Shakespeare love poem opens with the famous line “When my love swears that she is made of truth; I do believe her, though I know she lies,”. The meaning of this line is simple. When the poet’s mistress says that she is faithful, the poet is willing to believe her, but deep down he knows that she is lying.

There are some clever plays on words here. Firstly, the word “swears” in those days means that he “has suspicion” or doesn’t fully believe something, which alludes to the fact that the poet, in his heart, knows his mistress is lying. Secondly, there is a very clever and famous pun on the word “lies”. She “lies” can mean that she is not telling the truth, and also that she is “lying” with other men and having affairs with them. In this case, both meanings are true.

The next lines describe how the mistress (dark lady) thinks that the poet is naive and does not know about deciet in the world.

2nd quatrain

This quatrain is about the poet’s own lies and deceit. He is portrayed as a bit weak and rather pitiful, because he “vainly” wishes that his mistress sees him as young. The use of the word vainly here is clever, the poet is vain because he wishes to be young, but he knows his hopes are “in vain” and deep down he knows his mistress thinks he is old.

“Simply I credit her false speaking tongue,” – this line shows the poet, that like a fool (which is shown by the word “simply”) gives credit to the lies that the mistress tells about him.

This quatrain also talks about how both the poet and his mistress lie to each other.

3rd quatrain

The third quatrain is interesting, and it asks the two questions which we all want answered, why does she keep lying to him about being unfaithful? and why does he not admit that he is old?

The poet then answers these questions very simply and with a wise eye.

“O, love’s best habit is in seeming trust” – the most powerful part of love is that it fakes trust, so their love covers up the fact that she is being unfaithful, and the poet ignores it most of the time.

“And age in love loves not to have years told” – older lovers hate to have their age pointed out to them, they are ashamed and would rather ignore it. The tragedy of this Shakespeare love sonnet is how the poet feels so weak and helpless and tries to ignore the sad things in his life.

Final Rhyming couplet

These final two lines are again all about the “lies”. “Therefore I lie with her and she with me,” this clever line means that the poet “lies” with her (has secual relations with) and lies to her as well.

“And in our faults by lies we flatter’d be” – the lies which we tell each other help us forget out sadness and all each other’s imperfections.

Here is the poem in full, as always with the quatrains separated out,

Sonnet 138

1st quatrain
When my love swears that she is made of truth,
I do believe her though I know she lies,
That she might think me some untutored youth,
Unlearnèd in the world’s false subtleties.
2nd quatrain
Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young,
Although she knows my days are past the best,
Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue,
On both side thus is simple truth suppressed.
3rd quatrain
But wherefore says she not she is unjust?
And wherefore say not I that I am old?
O love’s best habit is in seeming trust,
And age in love loves not to have years told.
Final Rhyming Couplet
Therefore I lie with her, and she with me,
And in our faults by lies we flattered be.

As this is one of the later Shakespeare love sonnets, the theme and mood is rather sad and resigned, as the story of the sonnets comes to its sad ending. This is one of the best Shakespeare love poems to study, however, as this sonnet has a simple meaning and many clever uses of words.

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Shakespeare love poems

What is the most famous Shakespeare sonnet?

Used under creative commons from mdavisphotography

The most famous Shakespeare sonnet is sonnet 18 (also known as Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?)

Simple as that.

Which are the other famous Shakespeare love sonnets for contention?

Well sonnet 138 is very famous. The opening line is “When my love swears that she is made of truth”. This sonnet talks about how lovers flatter each other and argues about the truth in romantic relationships. It is interesting to read because it asks a lot of questions. Quite literally, there is a line which asks “But wherefore says she not she is unjust?”.

Sonnet 29 is also very famous. The opening line is “When in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes”. Of all the Shakespeare love sonnets, sonnet 29 is the most dark and depressing, and shows the poet at his most depressed and insecure state. The poet talks about how in his darkest hour, thinking of the fair youth can make him feel happier.

Sonnet 116 is definitely the second most famous. The opening line is this famous Shakespeare sonnet is “Let not to the marriage of true minds”. This poem talks about how true love never changes, and will stand to the test of time, through rough times and smooth. It is probably so popular because it’s message is simple.

Sonnet 130 is also popular. It is actually a personal favourite of mine. I like how Shakespeare uses contrast to describe his lover, pointing out all of his lover’s imprtfections, and yet at the end complimenting her hugely by saying that he loves her even though she is not what conventional beauty is described as. Shakespeare shows a level of honesty and integrity here. Although the poem is written from the point of view of “the poet character

sonnet 126 is another popular one. It’s opening line is “O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power”. It is talking about the fair youth, and is the last poem in the fair youth sequence. This Shakespeare love poem talks about how nature changes with time, and also talks about the nature of time. In fact, in this sonnet, nature is described as a person, and a female person at that – possibly alludng to mother nature. This Shakespeare love sonnet only has 12 lines instead of 14, though it is possible that the last two lines were lost. Sonnet 99 is the only other Shakespeare love sonnet that does not have 14 lines, instead it has 15.

But of the all the famous Shakespeare sonnets, Sonnet 18, also known by its opening line “Shall I compare thee to a summers day?’ Is by far the most famous. In this Shakespeare love poem, the poet talks about the fair youth, and not surprisingly, describes him like a summers day. He describes the fair youth’s complexion as like the golden sun, and says that his beauty is everlasting like the summer. A simple sonnet, with a loving message. I’ve seen many a person tweet “Shall I compare thee to a…” and then write whatever they want to write about. That line is one of the most used Shakespeare references, in real life and in the media

If you want to know more about these famous Shakespeare sonnets, then I have summaries and analysis of them at Shakespeare love poems

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Shakespeare Love Poems

The Sonnet Man

Today I’d like to talk about an inspirational man. His name is Devon Glover. He is the Sonnet Man. And he is cooler than Shakespeare love poems.

Quite simply, he fuses the famous Shakespeare sonnets with Hip hop and rap. Not only does he make it sound cool, he makes Shakespeare accessible to the youth of today. People are able to relate to the message much better if they for one, enjoy the music, and two, are able to relate to the person who is telling the story

Devon Glover is an ordinary man from the streets of Brooklyn, New York. Here’s a picture of him so you can see how ordinary he is.

Used under creative commons from Jackson Repertory Theatre

Only joking. Of course, just by looking at his face you can tell he is exceptional.

Check out this video of the Sonnet Man in action (in full hd!)

Devon says he left school while just one class short to help with his family’s financial problems. He wanted to be there to help his mother look after his younger brothers.

By day he leads an ordinary life of being a primary school teacher. At night he performs Shakespeare love sonnets in theatres around Brooklyn. From the video, you can tell he is just a modest guy trying to give back to the community. He says that he has had the dream of teaching ever since the age of 15. Rather than go down the bad route of drugs and violence like many other teenages do, he decided to try and make something of his life and teach those younger minds not to go down the bad routes in life.

His thoughts alone are admirable, but what is especially interesting is how he uses Shakespeare’s wisdom to teach and to entertain. It is a great idea. Shakespeare love poems are generally read by the more middle and upper classes, many working class people just have little interest in Shakespeare. People in general often have difficulty understanding Shakespeare (which is where my articles come in handy to help you understand the Shakespeare love poems). Through his music, Glover is able to communicate the thoughts and feelings of the Shakespeare love sonnets to his audience, even if they don’t necessarily understand the words.

He makes the Shakespeare sonnets interesting and fun for the kids. And, dare I say it, even cool (which is a often percieved problem with Shakespeare). Hearing Shakespeare being performed by someone young, charismatic, who understands and is normal people, makes Shakespeare credible for the younger generation. They will not look at Shakespeare as something for old people to read, they will see it as famous and interesting literature. And of course, if kids are interested in something, they are more likely to want to learn about it.

If you want to learn about Shakespeare love poems, then you’d probably like to click the link below.

Shakespeare love poems

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Shakespeare Love Poems

Sonnet 29 Analysis

Used under creative commons from h.koppdelaney

Sonnet 29 is dark and mysterious, and also sad and tragic. In this Shakespeare love poem we see the poet at his most unhappy and insecure. This Shakespeare love sonnet talks about how love can bring happiness to even the darkest of times, and the poet thanks the fair youth for his love and friendship, especially as he is going through a hard time at the moment.

The main message of this Shakespeare love poem is, love can bring light to even the darkest of times.

This poem is sad. It is in fact so sad that I will attempt to lighten the mood a little bit. Around this time the London theatres closed due to an outbreak of the plague. Many writers and poets went through a tough time because there was no work. For Shakespeare, with no money coming in and the plague also everywhere, things were bleak and he must have been quite depressed at the time. However this poem is written from the prospective of “the poet” character – not shakespeare himself. Although this poem may reflect some of Shakespeare’s feelings, it is fair to say that it is probably exaggerated in some way.

Here is my summary and analysis on sonnet 29

1st quatrain

The first line talks about how lonely the poet is, “When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes”. The poet is saying he has fallen out of fortune or luck and has fallen out of favour with other people. He then says that he feels like a social outcast.  The poet says “cursing my fate” and also says that his prayer’s have gone unanswered

2nd quatrain

Next, lines 3-7 talk about jealousy, which is something that we can all relate to. and then also describes all the things that he is jealous about. He wishes he were “more rich in hope”, and “featured like him” which means he wishes he had good looks like him, and “like him with friends possess’d” so he wishes that he had lots of friends like him. He also says he wishes he had his skill and his freedom.
The last line in this quatrain is interesting though – “With what I most enjoy contented least”. This line means that what he used to enjoy he now is least contented with. This last line is not about jealousy, it shows a sure sign of depression. The randomness of this line makes it seem as though the writer’s mind is elsewhere.

3rd quatrain

In typical Shakespeare fashion, the opening of this quatrain completely changes the mood. From the darkness, the poem opens up into light and the poet talks about how happy he is to know his love, and how much he appreciates it. The poet says even though he feels “myself almost despising”, that he thinks about the fair youth and feels happy, “Haply I think on thee, and then my state, Like to the lark at break of day arising”. The description of the lark at the break of day conjures an image of a fresh morning opening and the day getting lighter, which reflects the poet’s mood getting lighter as well.

Final Rhyming Couplet

The final two lines are simple. “For thy sweet love remember’d such wealth brings” – for your love brings me so much happiness, “That then I scorn to change my state with kings” – that I would rather have your love than swap with the life of a king. A simple and sweet message.

Sonnet 29

1st quatrain
When in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
2nd quatrain
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess’d,
Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least.
3rd quatrain
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
Final Rhyming Couplet
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Shakespeare was upset at the time because he was verbally attacked by a poet called Robert Greene who called Shakespeare an “upstart crow” and basically said that Shakespeare was a rubbish poet. Reportedly Shakespeare was deeply upset about this. He refers to this incident in the line “beweep my outcast state”, because he felt like an outcast and felt rejected by all the other poets. Quite why Shakespeare was so upset by this small insult is rather strange, but being a dramatic writer and poet, I suppose he must have been a sensitive soul. His romantic writing and description is brilliant, but he also seems to have been a bit of a wuss.

This poem talks about depression, about being sad and not thinking much of yourself. We have all seen times where we have felt like this. Some of you may be going through a difficult time yourself. If so, I think we can all find solace in the wise words of Shakespeare’s love poems, which remind us that sometimes we have to take hardship. Shakespeare captures the reality of life beautifully. Have a look here if you want to read more Shakespeare love poems

And here is Rufus Wainwright singing sonnet 29

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Shakespeare Love Poems

What do you think?

Now, in Shakespeare love poems, its time for me to ask you guys your opinions.

I want to know which is your favorite Shakespeare love poem, or favorite Shakespeare love sonnet. Do you like the very vivid description in Venus and Adonis, or the complex and mysterious nature of the phoenix and the turtle?

How about sonnets? Personally my favourite is sonnet 18 (Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day). Sonnet 116 is also very popular, and the nautical imagery in sonnet 130 has really opened my eyes to the depth of Shakespeare’s description and it has intrigued me.

And why do i like Shakespeare love poems? Well I think they have stood up to the test of time and they have something to teach every one of us. I’ve heard from one of my fellow twitterers that he recited some of them at his wedding! The message in Shakespeare’s love poems in truly universal.

In fact there are always things to learn from his love poems. I was just browsing through the sonnets the other day and I found this quote, “Such is my love, to thee I so belong, That for thy right, myself will bear all wrong.” This quote reminds us that our love is our own responsibility, never that of our lover.

I’ve always thought that many of Shakespeare’s love poems represent wisdom which transcends all the ages. It does not matter if you’re young or old, what background or race you come from, Shakespeare’s wisdom is for everyone.

How to describe Shakespeare love poems? – Here are some words I would use to describe Shakespeare love poems – romantic, clever, smart, wise, descriptive, evocative, smooth, sharp, witty, old age rap.

Yes old age rap. To explain what I mean by this, I need you to take a look at this picture

Used under creative commons from Jackson Repertory Theatre

He is known as Sonnet Man. More about him later, but he takes shakespeare’s sonnets and adds his own unique urban beat to them, making Shakespeare more accessible to the younger and more street audience. He dedicates himself to spreading a message of love to those in less priviledged backgrounds, and coming from a similar background himself and because he is able to relate and use his enthusiasm and charisma to charm his audiences. Check him out

So I’d love to hear your thoughts on Shakespeare love poems. Please get in contact and tell me what you think about Shakespeare.

• Shakespeare Love Poems- Love By William Shakespeare TELL me where is Fancy bred, Or in the heart or in the head? How begot, how nourished?  Reply, reply. Join us at Facebook or Twitter Contact/Suggestions/Feedback and Related Links Love Poems & Poetry Copyright © 2011 All Rights Reserved.
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Shakespeare love poems

Sonnet 116 Analysis

Used under creative commons from christopher setty

Sonnet 116 is best known by the line “Let me not to the marriage of true minds”, and is one of the most famous Shakespeare love poems or Shakespeare love sonnets. the poem’s message is a simple one, that true love stays constant, and will not be defeated in the face of adversity.

However many scholars think that the theme has been misunderstood. Some scholars say that this sonnet is completely unlike any of the other Shakespeare love sonnets (such as sonnet 94 or sonnet 129), and that sonnet 116 shows how vulnerable love is in reality.

1st Quatrain

The first line of this poem sets out its simple theme – “Let me not to the marriage of true minds, Admit impediments”. This line means that nothing should stop the marriage of two people who have true love (or true minds). Over the next quatrains, this same message is repeated in different ways, so this Shakespeare love sonnet is rather slow and careful. But it is such an important message. The next lines describe what love is not. Love does not change when it faces difficult times, or even if one of the lovers is unfaithful.

Shakespeare begins to use nautical imagery in this section, such as “Which alters when it alteration finds” describing a ship changing course. There is a lot of nautical imagery in this Shakespeare love poem.

2nd quatrain

The quatrain opens with “O no! It is an ever-fixed mark”, saying that love is like a lighthouse, it is stable and constant even in rough winds and rain and “Tempests”. He says it is true love is “the star”, which almost creates a feeling that love is like a north star to sailors, or a star to those unhappy souls who have lost heir way. The line “Whose worth’s unknown although his height be taken”, means the worth of true love can never be measured, but its height can be. What I think Shakespeare means by this is that you can measure how “high” or great true love is, but the worth of true love is priceless.

3rd quatrain

This poem again opens with love is not times fool, it stands strong in the test of time, but “rosy lips and cheeks” as in physical beauty, is affected by time. Physical beauty is in the reach of time’s “sickle”. Notice how Shakespeare uses imagery of the “sickle” to describe time, comparing time to the grim reaper or death as he is also known.

Still true love does not change after a few hours or weeks, but it is always there until the very last day of your life.

Final rhyming couplet

The final two lines are very mysterious, and have been the cause for a lot of debate. The basic message is, If I am proved wrong about these thoughts, then I take back everything I have ever written (I never writ), and no man has ever loved. It is a paradox. The line “I never writ” can be taken to mean  ”everything I have written before is meaningless” or it can be literally mean I have never wrote anything before. The reason the second meaning also makes sense is that Shakespeare could be saying that he cannot be wrong about love. He may be arguing some thing this, “If I am wrong about love, then I have never written anything. But I have written this poem, so therefore I am right about love”. The mysterious nature of this final couplet shows the paradoxical nature of love. Many times men have loved falsely based on looks and beauty, but sometimes men have also given true love and affection.

 Sonnet 116 (Let me not to the marriage of true minds)

1st quatrain
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
2nd quatrain
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
3rd quatrain
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
Final rhyming couplet
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Sonnet 116 is one of the most mysterious Shakespeare Love Sonnets, but the description used when it describes the nature of love is excellent. Being short, and having a simple message, this is one of my favourite Shakespeare Love Poems.

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Shakespeare Love Poems

The Rape of Lucrece Analysis

Used under creative commons from rachel brandon

The Rape of Lucrece is by far the longest of the Shakespeare love poems with a whopping 1855 lines!. It tells the story of how the beautiful and chaste Lucrece, the wife of Collatinus, is raped by Tarquin who is the son of the king.

The story is based on both Ovid’s Fasti and Livy’s History of Rome. The poem is written in rhyme royal. This means the stanzas are seven lines long in iambic pentameter. The rhyme royal rhyme scheme is aba-bb-cc.

Clearly for such a long Shakespeare love poem, you would like a short summary. Here is a summary which I have tried to keep simple and concise.

The setting is 509bc in Rome. Lucius Tarquinius is the Etruschan king, and Sextus Tarquinius is his son. Lucius Tarquinius goes to besiege Ardea, a town near Rome. He brings his sons and his noblemen. An army meeting is held at the tent of Sextus Tarquinius (from now on referred to as Tarquin). All the important army officials are here, including an army offical named Collatinus. He boasts about how the chastity of his wife Lucrece and how beautiful she is. Later, Tarquin and the officials go to a dance, and Lucrece is there. Tarquin finds here incredibly beautiful and thinks that Collatinus has understated how beautiful and charming lucrece is. However, Tarquin does not tell anyone that he is infatuated with Lucrece, and hides it very well. He excuses himself from the party, and tells Collatinus that he is going to bed early because he is tired. Collatinus does not suspect anything.

That night in his bedchamber, Tarquin thinks about raping Lucrece. His consceince tells him that it is a bad thing to do, but his desire takes over, and in the night he sneaks into Lucrece’s bed chamber and threatens to kill her with his sword. He then rapes her, and runs away in the morning.

Lucrece, completely distraught, sends for help. When her father and husband arrive, she tells them of what happened, and then suddenly stabs herself out of misery.

Brutus, a friend of Collatinus, takes her body to Rome, bearing it for all to see, and vows to use Lucrece’s story to get rid of the terrible Tarquins once and for all. He tells the people of what terrible deed has occured, and together they root out the whole family of the Tarquins, and establish the new Roman republic.

Analysis

The main themes in this Shakespeare love poem are to highlight the horror of the act of rape. The tragedy is emphasised by Collatinus praising Lucrece too much in the introduction – “boast of Lucrece’ sov’reignty”.  Shakespeare describes the act as violent, almost like Tarquin is mutilating Lucrece. He compares the act of penetration to a sword stabbing her and by doing so shows how evil and wrong the act is. Shakespeare shows how selfish and rash tarquin is with the line “desire is my pilot and beauty my prize.”

The first section of the poem is Tarquin’s voice as he debates over this act which he knows will ruin himself, and everyone else. But his desire takes over, and he still rapes Lucrece. In this manner Shakespeare comments on human nature. Tarquin knows this is a terrible thing to do, and he has no excuse, which is shown in the following line “no excuse can my invention make… so black a deed”. Yet even knowing that he has no excuse for it, he still does it, and this happens often in society. Shakespeare questions how immoral and selfish this society is.

Also Lucrece becomes very important, and the poem shows a lot of favour to the unfortunate girl. The poem offers an apology to Lucrece, trying to free her from her guilt ”Then call them not authors of their ill, no more than wax shall be accounted evil”, but Lucrece still kills herself  After her rape, her body becomes a symbol for justice and good, and through this symbol the people are united in uprising against the evil Tarquin family.

This is by far the heaviest and most tragic of the Shakespeare love poems. If you would like to read about something a bit less violent in nature, have a look at this Shakespeare love poem, Venus and Adonis

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Shakespeare Love Poems

Venus and Adonis analysis

Used under creative commons from mimi lo

Venus and Adonis is one of the longest Shakespeare love poems, and so I have split up the summary and the analysis. If you want to see the summary, click here for my Venus and Adonis summary.

Here is my analysis of Venus and Adonis.

The main themes are erotic love, the recurring theme of Adonis rejecting Venus, which is a concept that shakespeare came up with himself. In most literary texts (including Metamorphoses by Ovid which Shakespeare got the idea for this poem from), Venus the goddess is lusted over by everyone. In Ovid’s story, Venus takes Adonis as her first mortal lover, and their love is absolute.

The poem portrays a conflicting view of love. Ambivalence is also one of the main themes of the poem. Ambivalence means having conflicting feelings for something, or something which is neither good nor bad. In this Shakespeare love poem, Venus can be seen as a strong minded woman, but she can also be seen as desperate, so her description is ambivalent. Venus and Adonis are portrayed as ambivalent because neither of them are “good” people or “bad” people.

Early on in the poem, the theme is set for the rest of the story;

“She red and hot as coals of glowing fire,
He red for shame, but frosty in desire.”

Venus is lustful and with burning passion for Adonis. Adonis is confused and embarrassed, and does not really understand or appreciate love. Another quote which shows Adonis’s naivety is “He burns with bashful shame: she with her tears”.

I find it interesting how Shakespeare portrays the two characters. Clearly, Venus is portrayed as a very strong woman, she knows what she wants and uses her all charm and cunning to get it. But, at times she may be said to be desperate and begging. This is one of the most famous passages, where Venus’s explicit description makes her seem immodest and undignified.

“I’ll be a park, and thou shalt be my deer;
Feed where thou wilt, on mountain or in dale:
Graze on my lips; and if those hills be dry,
Stray lower, where the pleasant fountains lie.”

Adonis, on the other hand, is strong and resolute in his morals and refusal. Although Venus does eventually seduce him, she had to try extremely hard, and Adonis’s his horse ran away from him so he couldn’t leave. Venus also did sort of trick Adonis by pretending she had fainted.

Shakespeare had already shown a fondness for writing about strong female heroines in The Two Gentlemen of Verona. However, in this Shakespeare love poem, the portrayal of Venus is ambivalent. She is almost seen as some kind of sexual predator, ”Even as an empty eagle, sharp by fast, Tires with her beak on feathers, flesh and bone,”. She seems animalistic and greedy in her lust, “And having felt the sweetness of the spoil, With blindfold fury she begins to forage; Her face doth reek and smoke, her blood doth boil,”

The worst that could be said of Adonis is that he seems so cold and so bereft of love that he is inhuman. Where Venus is very  loving (although it is later said that she is more lust than love) Adonis seems to be cold-hearted. But Adonis does help Venus when he thinks she has died. He also seems very proud, when venus asks to meet him again tomorrow, he feels ashamed for what he has done and his pride will not allow him to see her. Failing to heed her warning, he dies from a wound from the boar.

In this descritpiion Venus is so explicit that she comes across as a bit desperate and longing. I think Adonis comes off better, evemn though both characters are portrayed with ambivalence

But Adonis does come across as a bit naive sometimes. This is the description when Adonis kisses Venus because he thinks she is dead “He kisses her; and she, by her good will, Will never rise, so he will kiss her still”.

Still although Adonis is naive and cold, he still seems moral and dignified, so I think overall he is portrayed in better light.

Venus’s failing to seduce Adonis show how improper her love is. She is not honest or modest about it, she just goes on pure lust. It is interesting to see how Shakespeare portrays Venus the goddess as very human through her repeated failure to seduce Adonis. It was only by a set of lucky circumstances that she managed to seduce Adonis. We are used to seeing gods as being immortal and never failing. Of all the Shakespeare love poems, this one has the most explicit description of erotic love.

Shakespeare’s message here, is the dishonest nature of love, and that true love is very rare. Many times people are manipulated into loving someone. Even Venus, goddess of love, has to resort to manipulation to make Adonis love her!

Here is a short video summary, read by a rather strange American-sounding man, and an even stranger woman.

If you want to know more about Shakespeare love poems, please stay tuned. Have a look at some of my other posts here Shakespeare love poems

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Shakespeare Love Poems

Venus and Adonis Summary

Used under creative commons from Ancient cities

Venus and Adonis is the first of the Shakespeare love poems, written in 1594. The story comes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Shakespeare took this story and composed it into a poem of 1194 lines. This is the second longest of the full length Shakespeare love poems. The longest Shakespeare love poem, The Rape of Lucrece, is a whopping 1855 lines long!

The name Adonis is taken from greek mythology. Adonis is the son of Myrrh, who lusted over her father. Myrrh eventually tricked her father and seduced him. When her father eventually learned of the truth he was infuriated, and while Myrrh was running away from her father, she was turned into a myrrh tree and from this tree the boy Adonis was born.

There is a fair bit of history to go with this poem. Firstly it was dedicated to Henry Wriothesely, Shakespeare’s patron. many think Wriothesely is the “fair youth” in the Shakespeare love sonnets.

Secondly, this poem marked a change in Shakespeare’s attitude to writing. After he wrote this poem, he managed to acquire a stake in his theatre company, and thereafter it became more profitable for him to write plays rather than poems. This explains why he only wrote 4 full length Shakespeare love poems, whereas he wrote 37 plays.

This poem is very very long, and so, if you don’t have much time and want a short summary of the poem, here it is. I have not included an analysis of this poem in this post because it is so long, but tomorrows post will be an analysis on this Shakespeare love poem, Venus and Adonis

Summary

Adonis is a handsome young boy who was not quite yet reached manhood, but his masculine form makes him very desirable. He is a hunter and says his only love is that of hunting. Venus, the God of love, sees him while he is hunting and immediately lusts after him. She tried very hard to seduce him, and she, being the God of love, is a beautiful woman, who takes quite some resisting. But adonis is a young boy, strong in will and pride, and he does not want to give away his virginity that easily. His pride and resisting only make the lusty Venus want him even more. She is cunning and tries to manipulate him, using all sorts of arguments to try and seduce him.

First she says that she could understand him rejecting her – if she were old and ugly, but to deny himself this sort of beauty would be a crime. He still rejects her. Then she asks for his sympathy and asks him to put himself in her shoes, what would he do if he was lusty and unloved like her? She asks him for this one favour, she wants to be loved this one time. She says humans are  born to breed. Adonis wants nothing to do with her, and gets ready to mount his horse to leave.

Just at this moment, his horse sees a mare and runs after her trying to mount her, which clearly comes at a most opportune moment for Venus. Adonis, not being able to leave, has to put up with the extremely sexually frustrated Venus, who tries even harder to seduce Adonis. She tries to woo him with her eyes, to which Adonis looks away. Her desire unlike the sea, has no boundaries (“The sea hath bounds, but deep desire hath none”). She appeals to his five senses. Failing all this, Venus falls down and lies on the grass feigning death. Adonis kisses her to try to revive her. Venus makes him kiss her again, and Adonis is drawn into a passionate embrace. This time, Venus seduces Adonis, and she takes all she can from him, but she is still not satisfied. She asks him to meet her again tomorrow.  Adonis feels ashamed and is repulsed by her, because she is full of lust and does not really love him. He refuses to meet her, and Venus begs him not to hunt dangerous animals tommorrow because she has prophesised that he will die if he does. He does not heed this warning.

The next day, Adonis dies from a wound by a boar. Overwhelmed by sadness, Venus lies next to him and miraculously melts away.

If you want to find out more about this Shakespeare love poem, check out my Venus and Adonis Analysis

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Shakespeare Love Poems

When was Shakespeare born?

Used under creative commons from maria teresa adalid

I thought Id take a little time out to answer one of the age old questions, when was shakespeare born?

William  Shakespeare was officially baptised on the 26 April 1564. His name is officially registered in the baptism register of the Church of the Holy Trinity on this day, and he was born a Catholic, although later in life he seemed not to care very much for the religion and gave off mixed views on it. His actual birthdate remains unknown.

Until now…

Not really its still unknown. He died on the 23 April 1616, at just 52. Traditionally, Shakepeare’s fans celebrate his birthday on the 23rd April because it is assumed that he was born 3 days before he was baptised. It is just a coincedence that this happens to land on the date of his death. This also happens to be St George’s day in the UK, and important holiday in England to celebrate death of St George, the patron saint of England. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon which is in England, UK (for all you Americans). He married Anne Hathaway when he was just 18 years old. Although in those times, 18 was not seen as a young age to marry.

When was Hathaway born is another question you may well ask. Officially, the records have got her birth date down as either in 1555 or 1556. Either way, she was much older than Shakespeare when they married. She would have been either 8 or 9 years older! Even back in Shakespearean times, it was uncommon to see a younger man marrying an older woman.

Her home is located in Shottery in England and is now a famous tourist attraction. It is not as famous however as Shakespeare’s home in Stratford-upon-Avon. Shakespeare lived with Hathaway in this home and had three children with her. However, William Shakespeare soon became a successful and reputable writer in London, and spent a lot of his time there away from his family.

In 1585 his career as a writer in London was booming, he was becoming famous for writing plays, and later became acknowledged for his Shakespeare love poems. Soon, Shakespeare seemed to have little time for his family and seemed to become disinterested in them. Many sources say that he lost interest in Anne Hathaway and didn’t show very much love for her.

Shakespeare’s time was all about Protestantism. In many of his writings he references Protestant ideas, but often he also refrences catholic ideas, ideas such as the “thrice baptism” and such others.

At the end of his career, He took a break from writing plays all the time and started writing his Shakespeare love poems. In fact, after the sonnets were published, he began to write the first of his 4 full length love poems – Venus and Adonis, which is the one I would like to review next. But I hope you enjoyed my account of when was Shakespeare born.

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Shakespeare Love Poems

Shakespeare love poems – Why I like them

Photo used under creative commons by jessicalim14

Taking a break from my reviews of Shakespeare love poems, I just wanted to share a few of my thoughts on why I think Shakespeare love poems are so great.

I like Shakespeare love poems because they are clever, they are fun and full of skilful description. I like to talk about some of the coolest love poems, and bring them to you, along with my analysis and thoughts. There is another reason why I talk about them, and that is because they are great for romantic messages to send to loved ones, in fact they are the only real source of romantic quotes and thoughts that are reliably used across the world. Nowadays, most pop songs are a bit too crude to use as romantic sentiments.

Shakespeare love poems are all very honest. Shakespeare was revolutionary because he didn’t follow the convention of other poets at the time, who wrote really elaborate, highly romanticised poems which didn’t in reality didn’t mean very much. But such was the trend at the time. Shakespeare did still use some very romantic descriptions in his poetry, but he also mixes them with some of his honest insights on life at the time. The first Shakespeare sonnet, Sonnet 1, talks about how one person’s beauty does not last forever, but if you have children then that beauty will live on in them, and in this way beauty can be honoured forever.

So I think Shakespeare love poems have an element of truth about them, and there are bits of wisdom and advice there. such as from sonnet 22 “O! therefore, love, be of thyself so wary”

There are many of them. In fact. Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets, and a lot of those are about love. Many of the other sonnets have themes of love in them, because the whole story of the sonnets is a bout human relationships. And some even just have a few lines which show shakespeare’s genius descriptive and romantic writing. For example, Sonnet 27 is about how tiring and tiresome life can be sometimes, yet there is a great quote at the end, “Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night, Makes black night beauteous, and her old face new.”

Shakespeare’s love poems not only capture the changing society at the time, when the romantic period was beginning to end and people started to become more open and realistic about love, but many of his messages are still important today. For instance, in Sonnet 116, “Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks; Within his bending sickle’s compass come”. Here Shakespeare is saying that true love does not die over time, but time does put a lot of strain and difficulty on a relationship.

I also really appreciate how clever he is, there are many lines which have hidden meanings and other sneaky things. He really is quite sneaky is Shakespeare. See if you can find something sneaky and put it in the comments. If not, I’ll add some of my own later.

And I enjoy reading them because they use lots of colourful description and he has lots of interesting thoughts. For example in Sonnet 138, “O! love’s best habit is seeming trust” – saying that the most helpful part of love is its ability to create trust, even if it is not always genuine.

Shakespeare has been quoted by many many people and is still constantly in the media. The recent(ish) popular song  ”Love Story” by Taylor Swift is inspired by Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”. “Sister Moon” by Sting even quotes “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”.

In a small Washington town called “Othello”, there are streets called “Hamlet” and “Macbeth”, and they even intersect each other!

Here is a youtube video which shows another point I’d like to address

Shakespeare’s love poems give licence to be read in a dramatic manner. They give an air of classiness and intelligence. Its a shame the speaker in this video sounds so posh. It is a common misconception that Shakespeare is for the elderly, or the pompous. Shakespeare is to be enjoyed by everyone, the young, the short, the tall, all different races, all different classes. I think this most important thing to remember is that Shakespeare’s messages are universal.  My next post will show you that this is not the case

Who knows? Maybe I’ll make a video next time and show you how posh I am (I’m not posh).

So if you want to know more about Shakespeare love poems, I’ll be here talking about them more in the days to come.

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Shakespeare Love Poems

The Phoenix and the Turtle Analysis

The Phoenix and the Turtle is the most ambiguous of the Shakespeare love poems. It was published in 1601 by Robert Chester as part of a collection called “Loves Martyr”.

The format of the poem is as follows. It is split into two sections, the first section mourns the death of the two lovers, the Phoenix and the Turtle. This section has thirteen stanzas which are each four lines long. They have a rhyme scheme of (a-bb-a). The second section is called the Threnos and has five stanzas which are only three lines long. In this section the voice of reason also laments the death of the two lovers.

Little is known about this Shakespeare love poem. It is not very long but is very vague in its description, making it difficult to interpret. Many scholars argue over what the poem means and its purpose. In fact, scholars once debated whether Shakespeare actually wrote the poem! Thankfully however, most people have now agreed that Shakespeare himself wrote this poem.

But despite its murky history and enigmatic nature, I will try and give my summary of this poem.

The main characters are the Phoenix (the female bird), the Turtle-Dove (her husband), and at the end there is the Threnos, who represents the voice of reason. The Phoenix and the Turtle-Dove love each other completely and truely, but times are changing, and their love is the last real true love. When they die, true love dies with them, and the poem symbolises the death of idealised true love in society at the time. Many other birds such as the crow and the eagle are then called to the funeral of the Phoenix and the Turtle, to mourn their deaths. The other birds represent the variety of normal people in society. The crow, for example, represents a common bird or a common person. The eagle may represent the sharp-minded and brave.

The next part describes how love makes two people become the same being. Shakespeare uses the line “Had the essence but in one” – their spirit had become one being. He then uses another metaphor for the power of love “Number there in love had slain” – making clear that love has killed the seperateness of their souls.

The poem then describes how the two lovers slowly become more and more like each other untiul they are practically the same being. Reason is completely baffled by this – because love does not stand to reason.

The Threnos (the voice of reason) then makes its own observation on the phoenix and the turtle. It describes the couple as “Beauty, truth, and rarity. Grace in all simplicity”. The couple die, leaving no children (the line the author uses  is “Leaving no posterity”), because the couple were married but chaste. The threnos has as great deal of repect for the phoenix and the turtle, and says that with their death, truth and beauty are buried with them, and ends the poem, with a plea to those who are true and fair, to pray for the couple who symbolise all that is pure in love.

There are many theories on what this shakespeare love poem as a whole symbolises. One theory is that the characters in the poem each represent some of the Catholic friends that Shakespeare had at the time, and the poem is a message in support of Catholicism. Another theory is that the poem actually represents the relationship between Queen Elizabeth I and Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex. Many scholars argue over the various aspects of this poem to this day.

Nevertheless, It remains one of shakespare most mysterious poems. For example, the line, ”Property was thus appall’d, That the self was not the same” I think shows how vague and mysterious the poem is. I think Shakespeare himself probably meant it to be vague because the truth and beauty of the love he is trying to describe is quite intangible.

If you are looking for a more complex and interesting Shakespeare love poem to read and enjoy, the Phoenix and the Turtle is a great one to look at. Although there may not be many romantic description or ideas in it, it is always nice to study the methods of the great romantic writers.

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Shakespeare Love Poems

A Lover’s Complaint Analysis

One of the four full-length Shakespeare love poems, this poem is written in seven-line stanzas and is written in rhyme royal, just like another Shakespeare love poem, the Rape of Lucrece. The rhyme royal rhyming scheme is (aba-bb-cc). This full length poem is 394 lines long, and has 2579 words. so if you haven’t read it yet and don’t have the time to do so, have a look at my summary below.

It tells the story of a young maid who laments over her seduction by a persuasive, womanising young man. He eventually dumps her and breaks her heart. The story begins with her weeping and wailing by the river. An old shepherd hears her and takes pity, and goes over to console the young maid. He finds her throwing love tokens into the river as she weeps, old love letters, romantic poems (some written in blood) and jewellery, all given to her by the young seducer. The old shepherd notices that although the young maid looks bedraggled, she is still young and must have been pretty before she became in such a state. The young maid tells the story of how she was an innocent and chaste young woman, not to be easily seduced by red-blooded men. This young man had a reputation as a notorious womaniser, and the young maid was wary to begin with. Eventually his charms and popularity seduced her, Shakespeare goes on to describe the young man’s many qualities, he was very handsome, and had wit and charm and a twinkle in his eye. He had a “subduing tongue”  and could “make the weeper laugh, the laugher weep”

He gave her gifts and love tokens from his previous lovers to show how much her loved fer, and she accepted them and almost believed her loved her. Perhaps he did, it is not made clear in the poem, but soon the young maid started to fall in love with the young man, even though she knew of his nature as a womaniser and a cheater. Eventually the young man started becoming untrue and deep down she knew it, but she was so in love that it blinded her and she ignored it. The young man eventually left her to pursue other woman, and now the young woman is sad and alone.

Shakespeare explores two different themes of the nature of love here, both are very dangerous. In this Shakespeare love poem, there is firstly the power of love to blind all to sense. The young maid was at the time a chaste and good young lady, and she knew that the young man was a fickle seducer, but yet at the time she was blinded by love and it robbed her of all reason.

Out of all the Shakespeare love poems, this one carries a warning and the most serious message.

Another theme is the cruelty of love, how this young woman was cheated and dumped unkindly by this man. Sometimes people have very little concern for other peoples feelings.

This could also be interpreted as a theme on how fickle men’s hearts are. In this poem, we are unsure whether the man really over loved the young maid or whether he was just using her, but some lines portray him in a bad light. I particularly like this very clever description near the end of the poem “…though our drops this difference
bore, His poison’d me, and mine did him restore”. This is my favourite line in the poem, and it describes how the seducing young man’s false tears tricked the young maid into falling in love with him, but her real tears gave the young man strength and boosted his ego. The use of the word poison almost gives an evil edge to the young man’s motives

I like this poem’s description of each character’s flaws and qualities.The young maid’s description invokes pity in the reader “Her hair, nor loose nor tied in formal plat… Hanging her pale and pined cheek beside”, this description makes her seem very plain in appearance, almost as if she could be pretty, but has no strength or energy to care about her appearance. We could all learn from Shakespeare’s romantic writings here.

This in my opinion is one of the best Shakespeare Love Poems to learn romantic poetry from because of its simple themes of the dangers of love. Many of you may be able to relate to the story of the young maid in this poem, but if you’re looking for clever description, this is one of the best poems to look at.

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Shakespeare Love Poems

Sonnet 130 Analysis

Used under creative commons from Beinecke Flickr Laboratory

I love this reading by Alan Rickman of this particular Shakespeare love poem, sonnet 130. Many of you already know him as Professor Snape in Harry Potter, but Alan Rickman is one of Britain’s most revered and talented actors.

Here is my analysis of sonnet 130

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Shakespeare Love Poems

Shakespeare for kids (Romeo and Juliet)

Its not only Shakespeare love poems which we can use for romantic inspiration. Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays. It’s themes include tragedy, romance, poetry, and love. It’s  often difficult for kids to appreciate Shakespeare because they don’t understand it. Here is my Romeo And Juliet Summary for kids.

Act I

Montague supporter: Why are you punching me in the face?

Capulet supporter: I don’t know. Shall we stop fighting?

Prince of Verona: Everyone, STOP FIGHTING. From now on, everyone who is caught fighting will be punished by death. You are disturbing the peace.

Later… In Mr Capulet’s room

Count Paris: Mr Capulet, can I marry your daughter Juliet?

Capulet: Yes, actually, maybe I’ll ask her first, after all she is only 13.

Count Paris: Ok.

Capulet: If you want to marry Juliet, come to the Capulet ball in two years.

Count Paris: Ok.  

Later… in Romeo’s room

Benvolio: Romeo, mate, you’re my cousin, why you so sad man?

Romeo: I’m in love with Rosaline.

Benvolio: Rosaline? Who the banana is that? What about Juliet?

Romeo: Who’s Juliet? I’ve never met a Juliet before.

Benvolio: Oh, never mind then. Tell us about Rosaline.

Romeo: She’s one of Capulet’s nieces.

Benvolio: Then you should go to the Capulet ball.

Later… At the Capulet ball.

Romeo: Man, this party is rubbish, I can’t find Rosaline anywhere.

Juliet: Hi, I’m Juliet. What’s your name?

Romeo: Wow Juliet, you’re prettier than Rosaline, I think I love you now. 

They talk for ages

Juliet: Well, I have to go now, it’s been nice meeting you.

Romeo: You too

Act II

Later, Romeo sneaks into the Capulet Courtyard

(Juliet whispering to her friend): I think I love Romeo

Romeo: I overheard you. You say you love me, I love you, let’s get married in secret.

Juliet: Yes

Romeo and Juliet secretly marry the next day

Act III

Tybalt (a Capulet): Romeo! How did you get into the Capulet ball? You are a Montague. You lot are not allowed anywhere near us, and you are definitely not allowed to marry a Capulet in secret, not that any Capulet would think of marrying you.

Romeo: Lol

Tybalt: What are you laughing at? I challenge you to a duel!

Romeo: No, I can’t fight you.

Tybalt: Why? It’s not like you’re married to a capulet or something.

Romeo: Er…

Mercutio: Romeo you idiot, get out the way. I will fight you Tybalt!

Tybalt stabs Mercutio

Mercutio: Ow, I’m dying.

Romeo: No! Tybalt, I will kill you for that!

Romeo kills Tybalt

The Prince of Verona: Romeo, you are to leave Verona and never return.

Romeo secretly spends the night in Juliet’s chamber.

Romeo leaves Verona. Then…

Capulet: Juliet, I am making you marry Count Paris.

Juliet: I don’t want to marry Count Paris. He smells.

Capulet: Yes I know, still you need a husband. And I will disown you if you don’t marry Count Paris.

Juliet: Ah man, ok then.

Act IV

Juliet goes to Friar Laurence for help

Friar Laurence: Hi Juliet, Count Paris just left

Juliet: I don’t want to see him. I don’t want to marry Count Paris because he smells.

Friar Laurence: Ok, here is a potion that will make you look dead for 42 hours. Drink it just before the wedding. I will send a messenger to Romeo and tell him to come and get you when you wake up.

Juliet takes the drug. Her family find her body the next morning and they think she is dead

Act V

Meanwhile… at Romeo’s house in somewhere that isn’t Verona

Balthazaar (Romeo’s servent): Romeo, I heard Juliet is dead.

Romeo: Oh no. I must go back to Verona to find out if this is true. If I find out it is true, I will poison myself.

Later… Friar Laurence’s messenger reaches Romeo’s house

Friar Laurence’s Messenger: Romeo is not here. Ah man. I’m too late to deliver the message.

Later… at the Capulet crypt

Romeo: Oh no, Juliet really is dead. Her tomb is right here. I want to kill myself now. Hey Count Paris, what are you doing here?

Count Paris: I was going to marry Juliet

Romeo: What? I’ll kill you!

Romeo kills Count Paris. He then drinks the poison and dies

Then Juliet wakes up

Juliet: Oh no. Romeo is dead, I too want to kill myself now.

Juliet stabs herself with Romeo’s dagger

The Montagues and Capulets find Romeo and Juliet’s bodies in the crypt

The Montagues: Ah man, we should stop fighting. Look at what has happened. We are killing each other. That is bad.

The Capulets: Yes, We should stop fighting.

END

During the play, Romeo recites many Shakespeare Love Poems. If you want to have a look at some of them check my Shakespeare love poems article here

Or if you want to learn more about Shakespeare, love, romance, or how to write a romantic letter, Have a look at Shakespeare love poems

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Sonnet 18, a photo by Jinx! on Flickr.

Shakespeare Love Poems

Analysis of Sonnet 18 (Shall I compare thee?)

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Shakespeare Love Poems

Shakespeare Love Quotes Analysis

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 Shakespeare Love Poems

Famous Shakespeare Sonnets

The famous Shakespeare sonnets were compiled and composed into a book by Thomas Thorpe, and released on the 20th May 1609. Some of the poems were printed without Shakespeare’s permission. The book is a collection of 154 sonnets. The first 17 are called the procreation sonnets and encourage the protagonist to get married and have children.

 
Some of the other poems express themes such as love, loneliness, death, and ambiguous feelings towards ones mistress. The sonnets did not get much mention at the time but they rose steadily in reputation during the nineteenth century
 
The characters are the writer (the protagonist), The Fair Youth (also known as the handsome boy) with whom the writer shares a special love which has long been debated as being either homosexual or platonic. Then there is The Rival Poet, and finally The Dark Lady (or the mistress) whom both the writer and the Rival Poet love.
 
But how to write a sonnet? Sonnets are poems which are 14 lines long, and are composed in three 4-line stanzas (called quatrains) with a final rhyming couplet written in Iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter means the lines are 10 syllables long, with accents falling on every other syllable.
The rhyming scheme is abab cdcd efef gg. The gg is a rhyming couplet at the end which all Shakespeare’s sonnets end with. This form is now known as the Shakespearean sonnet.
The only exceptions are sonnets 99, 126, 145.
 
Of the Shakespeare love poems, the sonnets are probably more famous and more accessible than his full length poems such as The Phoenix and the Turtle. The most popular and famous of the Shakespeare love sonnets are:

Sonnet 18 – Shall I compare thee to a Summer’s day?
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate;
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Sonnet 29 – When in disgrace with fortune
When in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess’d,
Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least.
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Sonnet 30 – When to the sessions
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death’s dateless night,
And weep afresh love’s long since cancell’d woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish’d sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o’er
The sad account of fore-bemoanèd moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end.

Sonnet 73 – That time of year
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou seest the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire
Consumed with that which it was nourish’d by.
This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

Sonnet 116 – Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixèd mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Sonnet 126 – O thou my lovely boy
O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power
Dost hold Time’s fickle glass, his sickle, hour;
Who hast by waning grown, and therein show’st
Thy lovers withering, as thy sweet self grow’st.
If Nature, sovereign mistress over wrack,
As thou goest onwards, still will pluck thee back,
She keeps thee to this purpose, that her skill
May time disgrace and wretched minutes kill.
Yet fear her, O thou minion of her pleasure!
She may detain, but not still keep, her treasure:
Her audit (though delayed) answered must be,
And her quietus is to render thee.

Sonnet 130 – My Mistress’ eyes
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red ;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

Sonnet 138 – When my love
When my love swears that she is made of truth,
I do believe her though I know she lies,
That she might think me some untutored youth,
Unlearnèd in the world’s false subtleties.
Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young,
Although she knows my days are past the best,
Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue,
On both side thus is simple truth suppressed.
But wherefore says she not she is unjust?
And wherefore say not I that I am old?
O love’s best habit is in seeming trust,
And age in love loves not to have years told.
Therefore I lie with her, and she with me,
And in our faults by lies we flattered be.

Shakespeare is known for tackling themes that were unheard of in his time. These include,
openly talking about sex (in sonnet 129) and talking about pornography (sonnet 151), political issues (sonnet 124), and playing with gender roles (sonnet 20)

Sonnet 129 (openly talking about sex)
The expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action: and till action, lust
Is perjur’d, murderous, bloody, full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;
Enjoy’d no sooner but despised straight;
Past reason hunted; and no sooner had,
Past reason hated, as a swallow’d bait,
On purpose laid to make the taker mad:
Mad in pursuit and in possession so;
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;
A bliss in proof,— and prov’d, a very woe;
Before, a joy propos’d; behind a dream.
All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.

Sonnet 151 (talks about pornography)
Love is too young to know what conscience is;
Yet who knows not conscience is born of love?
Then, gentle cheater, urge not my amiss,
Lest guilty of my faults thy sweet self prove:
For, thou betraying me, I do betray
My nobler part to my gross body’s treason;
My soul doth tell my body that he may
Triumph in love; flesh stays no father reason;
But, rising at thy name, doth point out thee
As his triumphant prize. Proud of this pride,
He is contented thy poor drudge to be,
To stand in thy affairs, fall by thy side.
No want of conscience hold it that I call
Her ‘love’ for whose dear love I rise and fall.

Sonnet 124 (political issues)
If my dear love were but the child of state,
It might for Fortune’s bastard be unfather’d,
As subject to Time’s love or to Time’s hate,
Weeds among weeds, or flowers with flowers gather’d.
No, it was builded far from accident;
It suffers not in smiling pomp, nor falls
Under the blow of thralled discontent,
Whereto th’ inviting time our fashion calls:
It fears not policy, that heretic,
Which works on leases of short-number’d hours,
But all alone stands hugely politic,
That it nor grows with heat, nor drowns with showers.
To this I witness call the fools of time,
Which die for goodness, who have lived for crime.

Sonnet 20 (playing with gender roles)
A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted,
Hast thou, the master mistress of my passion;
A woman’s gentle heart, but not acquainted
With shifting change, as is false women’s fashion:
An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,
Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;
A man in hue all hues in his controlling,
Which steals men’s eyes and women’s souls amazeth.
And for a woman wert thou first created;
Till Nature, as she wrought thee, fell a-doting,
And by addition me of thee defeated,
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.
But since she prick’d thee out for women’s pleasure,
Mine be thy love and thy love’s use their treasure.


The identity of the “fair youth” character and his relationship with the writer has caused controversy and has been debated over the years. Some say the love the writer expresses for the fair youth is merely platonic, while others solicit a homosexual relationship. There are two earls who are most commonly suggested as the real identity of the “fair youth”. They are Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, and William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke. Both were patrons of Shakespeare at one time or another. Similar attempts have been made to identify the Rival Poet, and the Dark Lady.

The final 2 sonnets are allegories dealing with the Greek love god Cupid, and the quarto ends with “A Lover’s Complaint”, a narrative poem in which a young woman laments her seduction by a persuasive suitor. It is 47 lines long and composed of seven-line stanzas written in rhyme royal, that is, 7-line iambic pentameter with rhyme scheme ababbcc.

Many of these sonnets show Shakespeare’s best romantic writings, and there are many famous Shakespeare sonnets to choose from if you are looking for romantic ideas. Sonnet 18 – “Shall i compare thee to a summers day?”, For instance, is considered one of his greatest love poems.
Shakespeare’s love sonnets can also be seen as a prototype, or even the beginning, of a new kind of “modern” love poetry

Technorati Tags: famous Shakespeare sonnets, how to write a sonnet, Iambic pentameter, Shakespeare Love Poems, Shakespearean sonnet, The Phoenix and the Turtle

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Shakespeare Love Poems

Shakespeare love poems

Shakespeare’s quality for love writing is not only shown in Romeo and Juliet. He wrote many love poems as well.There are four poems which are his as his erotic works, and can be described as the Shakespeare Love Poems. They are The Rape of Lucrece, Venus and Adonis, The Phoenix and the Turtle, and A Lover’s Complaint, which is printed in the first edition of Shakespeare’s Sonnets. In Venus and Adonis, an innocent Adonis rejects the sexual advances of Venus. In The Rape of Lucrece, the virtuous wife Lucrece is raped by the lustful Tarquin. The Phoenix and the Turtle tells the story of the legendary phoenix and his faithful lover the turtle dove, and mourns their deaths. And A Lover’s Complaint, Sees a young woman lamenting over her seduction by a persuasive suitor.

These poems are much longer than some of the short, 14-line-long, romantic sonnets that Shakespeare wrote. A Lover’s Complaint is written at the end of Shakespeare’s collection of sonnets and is 47 lines long. The others are narrative poems and tell a whole story. Venus and Adonis is 1197 lines long! Clearly if you are looking for something to put into a letter to send to a loved one, you are better off looking at some of Shakespeare’s sonnets.

He also wrote 154 sonnets, some of these are about love as well.
The most famous of Shakespeare’s love sonnets is Sonnet 18 (Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?)

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate;
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Here are some other of Shakespeare’s love sonnets-

Sonnet 29

When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess’d,
Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remember’d such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Sonnet 40

Take all my loves, my love, yea take them all;
What hast thou then more than thou hadst before?
No love, my love, that thou mayst true love call;
All mine was thine, before thou hadst this more.
Then, if for my love, thou my love receivest,
I cannot blame thee, for my love thou usest;
But yet be blam’d, if thou thy self deceivest
By wilful taste of what thyself refusest.
I do forgive thy robbery, gentle thief,
Although thou steal thee all my poverty:
And yet, love knows it is a greater grief
To bear love’s wrong, than hate’s known injury.
Lascivious grace, in whom all ill well shows,
Kill me with spites yet we must not be foes.

Sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Sonnet 130 (My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun)

My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask’d, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

But Shakespeare love poems are not limited to just sonnets. Here are some more poems from some of his most popular plays.

O Mistress Mine (from Twelfth Night)

O Mistress mine, where are you roaming?
O, stay and hear! Your true love’s coming,
That can sing both high and low.
Trip no further, pretty sweeting.
Journeys end in lovers meeting,
Every wise man’s son doth know.

What is love? ‘Tis not hereafter.
Present mirth hath present laughter.
What’s to come is still unsure.
In delay there lies no plenty,
Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty.
Youth’s a stuff will not endure.

Take, O Take (from Measure for Measure)

Take, O take those lips away
That so sweetly were forsworn,
And those eyes, the break of day,
Lights that do mislead the morn:
But my kisses bring again,
Bring again—
Seals of love, but seal’d in vain,
Seal’d in vain!

These are just some of the many famous Shakespeare love poems. If you’re looking for more ideas on romance, have a look at Shakespeare’s collection of 154 sonnets, which deal with themes such as time, love and beauty. The first 17 sonnets are called the procreation sonnets and are written to a young man urging him to get married and have children. Later on they talk about the speaker’s love for a young man, and the speaker’s feelings for his mistress. The last two talk about the Greek love god Cupid.

So if you’re looking for ideas on for a poem, a romantic letter, or even a note to send your loved one, why look any further than one of the greatest romantic writers of all time, from the most romantic era of all time, the Shakespearian period.

Technorati Tags: A Lover's Complaint, My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun, O Mistress Mine, romantic letter, Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare Love Poems, Shakespeare love sonnets, Shakespeare's Sonnets, Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?, Sonnet 116, Sonnet 18, Sonnet 29, Sonnet 40, Take O Take, The Phoenix and the Turtle, The Rape of Lucrece, Venus and Adonis