The Sonnets and Narrative Poems: Shakespeare, William

"The Sonnets and Narrative Poems" collects together all the non-dramatic poetry of William Shakespeare. While Shakespeare is known best for his plays he also wrote numerous love sonnets and a handful of narrative poems which are excellent literary works in their own right. The narrative poems include two erotically themed works, "Venus and Adonis" and "The Rape of Lucrece" as well as the romantic narratives of "A Lover's Complaint" and "The Phoenix and the Turtle". Shakespeare also wrote a collection of 154 love sonnets. Believed to be written throughout his lifetime there is some dispute as to the intended order of "The Sonnets". It is thought that he planned two contrasting series for the poems. The first is of the desire for a married woman of dark complexion, the so-called "dark lady", and the other about the conflicted love of a fair young man, the "fair youth". This classic collection of non-dramatic poetry shows Shakespeare in a different light than his dramatic works and helps to exemplify the full breadth of his immense literary talents.