I'm not really sure why I haven't before read Shakespeare's early narrative poems, except that they were never assigned in a course that I took -- and I took many courses in Shakespeare in my academic career. It's too bad because both narratives are highly readable and relatively short -- each can be read in under an hour's time.

Each poem is about the play of sexual power and desire, and each ends in the death of the sexually desired object. Both poems, written in 1593 and 1594, probably during a period of plague in London when the playhouses were closed, were dedicated to Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton. Scholars speculate that the young Earl was sufficiently impressed and flattered enough to reward Shakespeare with enough funding to buy himself a share in the Lord Chamberlain's company where he would become the preeminent playwright.

Despite its tragic end, Venus and Adonis has humorous overtones as the voluptuous goddess tries to seduce the unwilling young hunter. Adonis wants nothing to do with Venus's desire -- he wants to go off and hunt boars with his buddies. One might detect a hint of bitterness on Shakespeare's part -- was the young Will, who at 18 was forced into a marriage with the older Anne Hathaway (in her late 20s) -- a counterpart to Adonis, who is plucked too young by the older Venus? Adonis complains when he is chided by Venus for his lack of ardor:

"I know not love," quoth he, "nor will not know it,
Unless it be a boar, and then I chase it.
'Tis much to borrow, and I will not owe it,
My love to love is love but to disgrace it:
For I have heard it is a life in death,
That laughs and weeps and all but with a breath.

"Who wears a garment shapeless and unfinished?
Who plucks the bud before one leaf put forth?
If springing things be any joy diminished,
They wither in their prime, prove nothing worth.
The colt that's backed and burdened being young
Loseth his pride, and never waxeth strong."

Lucrece, later titled The Rape of Lucretia, recounts the ancient Roman tale that is a foundation story for the emergence of the Roman Republic. Collatinus, an officer in the army of the Tarquins, the last monarchy of Rome, boasts about the virtue and beauty of his wife, Lucrece -- inflaming the passion and desire of Sextus Tarquinius, the son of the king. Tarquinius, bent on fulfilling his desire, goes to visit Lucrece, and despite his better nature, decides to satisfies his lust -- threatening Lucrece with scandal. If she does not willingly submit to his advances, he will kill her and then a kill a groom, leaving the two in bed together. In the aftermath, Lucrece, overcome with grief and shame, decides that the only course is suicide -- but only after she has told her husband and father of her violation and demanded revenge for the wrong. As she names Tarquinius as her violator, she pulls out a dagger and kills herself. At this point the poem ends, but the audience knows, that the revenge of Lucrece results in the end of the Tarquin dynasty and the establishment of the Roman Republic.

What struck me most about this poem, and in retrospect about Venus and Adonis as well, is that the story is told by the characters -- in long soliloquies and dialogue. Shakespeare doesn't bother with exposition or long description -- unless the characters are speaking. Even here, in these narrative poems, he is the playwright -- creating speeches for his characters.

Lucrece also has pre-echoes of some of Shakespeare's plays to come -- it's an incipient revenge tragedy, like Hamlet; Lucrece tries to persuade Tarquin to desist by invoking the responsibility of kings, like the chronicle plays and King Lear; when she contemplates a painting of the siege of Troy, she fixates on the grieving figure of Hecuba -- as Hamlet does with the players,and then moves on to Priam's dotage -- "Priam, why art thou old and yet not wise?" -- the very question that the fool asks King Lear.

All fans of Shakespeare should read these two poems for their insights into the man and the playwright. ( )