There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
William Shakespeare, from Hamlet
Shakespeare's mastery of language solidified his status as an iconic figure in the world of poetry. His writings invoke enduring themes, reflecting profound insights into the human condition. The quote above, not from a poem but from a play, is a brilliant representation of his poetic turn of phrase. In this article, we explore Shakespeare the poet and his best works.
| 🧾Poem | 🔎What it's about | 📝Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sonnet 1 | Introduces the themes and the young man he speaks with throughout his sonnets. | Sets the stage for all the sonnets that follow. |
| Sonnet 12 | Convinces the reader of time's passing and underscores that only procreation can steal time's prize. | Among the most important of Shakespeare's procreation works. |
| Sonnet 18 | Praises beauty, especially the kind that endures beyond fleeting youth. | Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. |
| Sonnet 29 | Uncovers the roots of self-doubt and how to manage those feelings. | Shakespeare turns the gloomy thoughts towards love by the end of the poem. |
| Sonnet 73 | Reflections on the passing of time, and having to leave one's love behind. | Each quatrain opens with a metaphor that illustrates time's passage. |
| Sonnet 116 | The insistence that true love is constant over time. | A deep dive into human emotions. |
| Sonnet 129 | Explores lust and its effects on one’s mind and spirit. | Among the Dark Lady sonnet series most noteworthy selections. |
| Sonnet 130 | Shunning popular beauty standards to find beauty in one's love. | A pointed critique of socially dictated standards of beauty. |
| Sonnet 131 | Describes how the Dark Lady bewitches and entrances the speaker. | One of the best examples of Shakespeare's famous wordplay. |
| The Rape of Lucrece | Describes the shame and pain of suffering rape. | Modelled on the epic poetry of Roman poet Ovid |
| Venus and Adonis | The greek god rejects Venus; his death saps the beauty out of the world. | Also modelled on Ovid. |
| The Phoenix and Turtle | Two birds die, one representing love and the other rebirth. Not all birds are invited to the funeral. | The first-ever published metaphysical poem. |
Was Shakespeare a Poet?
Shakespeare's literary works persistently resonate, attesting to their enduring significance in the literary canon. While he is regarded as the foremost dramatist of his time, he was essentially composing poetry. Between 1593 and 1601, he composed his sonnets, although they were not published until 1609.
Shakespeare as a Poet: Composer of Sonnets
Three quatrains and a couplet.
Quatrain: a stanza with four lines, typically having alternate rhyming.
Couplet: two lines of verse, one after the other, typically rhyming and having the same metre.
One hundred fifty four sonnets make up Thomas Thorpe's publication, stylised as Shake-speare's Sonnets, released in 1609. This compilation places Shakespeare solidly among the most famous British poets. Six additional sonnets appear in the plays Romeo and Juliet, Henri V, and Love's Labour's Lost. Regardless of where they appear, Shakespeare's sonnets fall into two groups:
Sonnets 1-126
Addressed to a beloved friend, a handsome and noble young man.
Sonnets 127-152
Addressed to a malignant but fascinating “Dark Lady,” whom the poet loves.
Nearly all of Shakespeare's sonnets examine the inevitable decay of time and the immortalisation of beauty and love in poetry.
According to some analyses, Shakespeare creates a radical internalisation of Petrarchisms – a poetic style with a complex grammatical structure. Through this dynamic, the author directs his attention to the speaker's subjectivity rather than to the object of the speaker's devotion. In these sonnets, the poetry of praise becomes the poetry of self-discovery.
Narrative poems
Shakespeare published two long poems, Venus and Adonis, in 1593, and The Rape of Lucrece in 1594.
Another of Shakespeare's poems, The Phoenix and Turtle, was commissioned for a collection by Robert Chester called Love's Martyr (1601).
By now, it's obvious that Shakespeare the poet was indeed the bard's writing hand. He revolutionised the world of poetry, but the revolution took its time to unfold. To this day, Shakespeare's works continue to influence modern writing, as well as other performance arts. Now, we take a closer look at some of Shakespeare's most beloved poems.
Venus and Adonis
This is a long narrative poem depicting the rejection of Venus by Adonis, his death, and the subsequent disappearance of beauty from the world. Modelled after the Roman poet Ovid, it is a retelling of the classical myth.
Venus, the goddess of love, who falls for a young mortal, dies after being attacked by a wild boar. This narrative poem is widely regarded as an experiment in delicate eroticism.
Sonnet 1
From his very first effort, Shakespeare shattered standard conventions of expression for courtly love. In it, we meet Fair Youth, the young man addressed across the Bard's first 126 sonnets.
This poem is the most important, as it sets the tone and stage for all the sonnets that follow.
Sonnet 1 introduces thematic elements that recur across the body of work, including procreation, introspection, and the true nature of love.
Sonnet 130
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun ...
William Shakespeare
In this poem, Shakespeare rejects popular beauty standards and indications of love. Traditional love poetry dictated that maidens must be depicted ideally. The Bard scoffs at such notions, representing his lady as imperfectly human and therefore more deserving of his love.
Long before photography was a thing, let alone the ability to alter photos digitally, Shakespeare was telling those 'influencers' to get real.
Sonnet 29
Every person wrestles with feelings of self-doubt and agonises over social acceptance. These torturous feelings are made worse through the constant competition on social media, at work, and in school. Apparently, this condition is not a new feature of the human experience.
Shakespeare, as a poet, must have had more than a passing familiarity with it, as he wrote this poignant rhyme. Let Dame Judy Dench wow you with her rendition of it. Be sure to catch the hook towards the sonnet's end, as the Bard abandons self-doubt for the concrete sureness of love.
Sonnet 12
Today, we find influential people infected with the desire for immortality. If only they knew this sonnet, which describes the finality of natural processes!
And nothing ‘gainst Time’s scythe can make defence
Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.
Sonnet 12 is one of the Bard's earliest procreation poems. In it, he encourages Fair Youth to marry and multiply, so as to preserve his beauty.
Sonnet 73
Matters like passing youth, loss of love and status, and fortunes never earned have dramatic impacts on a person's mental state. Contemporary poet Diego Perez, writing as Yung Pueblo, relies heavily on mindfulness and mental health to help readers overcome and heal from those losses.
Centuries before, our Bard was writing about the very same things, taking the same tack as the poet Perez. In this sonnet, Shakespeare urges Fair Youth to look to him when doubts about Youth's fragility arise.
At the start of each quatrain, the author uses a metaphor to invoke the passing of time.
The sonnet reflects on the power of enduring love and the fragility of life.
This is one of Shakespeare's most beloved and acclaimed sonnets.
The Rape of Lucrece
Shakespeare's second long poem is also modelled on Ovid, but it's rather more serious and based on history, not myth. The story depicts the rape of Lucretia, wife of Collatinus, by Tarquinius Sextus, son of the Roman king Tarquinius Superbus.
Devastated and filled with shame, Lucretia stabs herself to death. The poem comments on the problems of masculine violence and institutionalised attitudes towards feminine chastity.
Who Was William Shakespeare, the Poet?
Around 1613, William Shakespeare retired from Stratford and died three years later. That short epitaph gives us no clue about William Shakespeare, the poet, nor does it describe the circumstances of his time. This section does.
In his 21st year (1585), young William moved to London to begin his apprenticeship as an actor. Unfortunately, theatres were often closed between 1592 and 1594, as the bubonic plague decimated populations. We don't know much about any performance he might have treated audiences to. However, we know he was a writer of some renown by 1592.
... there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers ...
Robert Greene
That playwright apparently didn't care for the young upstart who wasn't even properly educated. Resentments aside, Shakespeare had a solid fanbase. During that period, William had financial support from his patron, Henry Wriothesley. Shakespeare would later dedicate his first two poems, Venus and Adonis (1593) and The Rape of Lucrece (1594), to him.
In 1594, Shakespeare joined the Lord Chamberlain's company of actors, the most popular of the companies acting at Court. In 1599, Shakespeare joined a group of Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. These Men would form a syndicate to build and operate a new playhouse: the Globe, which became the most famous theatre of its time.
With his share of the income from the Globe, Shakespeare purchased New Place, his home in Stratford.
He produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were comedies and histories. He then put his pen to composing tragedies until 1608. Among them, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth are all said to be among the finest works in the English language.
Is Shakespeare a Poet?
Shakespeare relied on his poetic genius and his innate sense of the theatre. He dramatised stories, reshaping each to create several centres of interest and reveal many sides of a narrative. He often poured his personal pain into his writing.
Shakespeare the poet must have suffered immeasurable grief, particularly over losing his son.
Sonnet 66 opens with "Tir'd with all these, for restful death I cry"
Although Shakespeare was not revered in his lifetime, he received a great amount of praise. To this day, we consider him England's National Poet.
Nowadays, 'short-form content' poets have a far greater reach - or, seen another way, are far more accessible to audiences. New breeds of writers and poets - instapoets - are making their literary mark, for better or worse on the poetry genre. Shakespeare, as a poet, could only dream of the reach today's instapoets have!
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