The Narrative Poems: Venus And Adonis; the Rape of Lucrece; the Phoenix And the Turtle; the Passionate Pilgrim (Penguin Classics S.) - Softcover

This edition contains Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, The Phoenix and the Turtle and The Passionate Pilgrim. Shakespeare was already established as a major dramatist when he wrote Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece, both dedicated to Henry Wriothesley. At one level both are 'display' poems designed to entertain a sophisticated courtly circle, but they also reveal Shakespeare's preoccupation with the nature of love and lust and the ensuing conflict between reason and passion. In ThePheonix and the Turtle, Shakespeare's most ambiguous and controversial poem, the theme of eternal love and fidelity is expressed in some of his most versatile and dazzling language.