Renaissance Literature

THE POEMS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

William Shakespeare is referred to as a Literary Genius and much of this praise is due to the wonderful words of his short sonnet poems and his extended poems as detailed on this page. He is the most widely read author in the whole of the Western World - his poems and quotes from poems are familiar to everyone. And yet when we think about Shakespeare we immediately we think of his famous plays and not his less famous poems. During the Bard's lifetime dramatists were not considered 'serious' authors with 'serious' talent - but it was highly fashionable to write poems. Plays were for entertainment poems were for the elite! There was not even such a thing as a custom built theatre until 1576! Actors were common folk. Poets of the era such as Christopher Marlowe, Sir Philip Sydney, Sir Walter Raleigh were of the nobility and there poems are still enjoyed today. These poets had credibility and so did their poetry. William Shakespeare came from Yeoman stock - he lacked credibility - his poems would have helped with this problem! The Bard did not give permission for one of his plays or his sonnets to be published. He was, however, happy to have his poems published. William Shake-spear has been attributed with the following poems:

THE PHOENIX AND THE TURTLE
A POEM BY
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

The Phoenix and the Turtle
Let the bird of loudest lay
On the sole Arabian tree
Herald sad and trumpet be
To whose sound chaste wings obey
But thou shrieking harbinger
Foul procurers of the fiend
Augur of the fever's end
To this troop come thou not near

From this session interdict
Every fowl of tyrant wing
Save the eagle, feathered king
Keep the obsequy so strict

Let the priest in surplice white
That defunctive music can
Be the death-divining swan
Lest the requiem lack his right

And thou, treble-dated crow
That thy sable gender make’s
With the breath thou give’s and take’s
'Mongst our mourners shalt thou go

Here the anthem doth commence
Love and constancy is dead
Phoenix and the turtle fled
In a mutual flame from hence

So they loved, as love in twain
Had the essence but in one
Two distinct, division none
Number there in love was slain

Hearts remote, yet not asunder
Distance, and no space was seen
'Twixt the turtle and his queen
But in them it were a wonder

So between them love did shine
That the turtle saw his right
Flaming in the phoenix' sight
Either was the other's mine

Property was thus appalled
That the self was not the same
Single nature's double name
Neither two nor one was called

Reason, in itself confounded
Saw division grow together
To themselves yet either neither
Simple were so well compounded

That it cried, 'How true a twain
See meth this concordant one!
Love hath reason, reason none
If what parts can so remain

Whereupon it made this threne
To the phoenix and the dove
Co-Supremes and stars of love
As chorus to their tragic scene

SUMMARY

The Phoenix and the Turtle Poem

William made this poem in 1601. This poem storied about the Poetical Essays appended to Robert Chester's Love's Martyr: or Rosalind's Complaint. It was attributed to William, and many scholars have accepted the poem as genuine. The date of composition of the poem is unknown, but this poem must be a more mature work. William used his good imagination to make this poem. The words are very wonderful.

YOU NOT ALONE, WHEN YOU ARE STILL ALONE
A POEM BY
MICHAEL DRAYTON

O God, from you that I could private be!
Since you one were, I never since was one
Since you in me, my self since out of me
Transported from my self into your being
Though either distant, present yet to either
Senseless with too much joy, each other seeing
And only absent when we are together
Give me my self and take your self again
Devise some means but how I may forsake you
So much is mine that doth with you remain
That, taking what is mine, with me I take you
You do bewitch me. O, that I could fly
From my self you, or from your own self!

SUMMARY

You Not Alone, When You Are Still Alone

Drayton made a simple poem. But it was filled by wonderful meaning. This poem storied about everyone whom loneliness. God is always beside us, everywhere and every time. Although, we do not have a friend, but we still have one God, most Gracious, and most Merciful. God gives a beautiful life for us. And Drayton expresses it in poem. He writes this poem with his experience.