The poems. / F. T. Prince, ed.

At head of title : The Arden edition of the works of William Shakespeare.

Venus and Adonis,are mouthpieces of for contrasting attitudes toward love and is chiefly about sensual pleasure .It is amatory,erotic,and amusing,despite its sad end.The Rape of Lucree is about heroic chastity.It is moral ,declamatory,and lugubrious.Both poems are dedicated to the Earl of Southampton.The Phoenix and Turtle effortlessly evokes the transcendental ideal of love existing eternally beyond death.The phoenix ,legendary bird of resurrection from its own ashes,once more finds klife through death in the company of the turtledove,emblem of pure constancy in affection.A Lover's Complaint Intorduces us to the forlorn maiden and then the old sheperd who becomes an audience for her tale of woe."In The Complete Works of Shakespeare.5th edition,edited by David Bevington.