Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis. An Audiobook.

The bard— not the brook, but don’t worry, this podcast isn’t going to become an English lesson.

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Here is my reading of Shakespeare’s first publication, Venus and Adonis, a poem that is pure music. If I were to list my favorite lines, I might as well copy out half the poem. Just something that pops into my head would be a line like,

“Rain added to a river that is rankPerforce will force it overflow the bank.”

It bursts with melody and rhythm! And at least one moment, such as when Venus addresses Death,

'Hard-favour'd tyrant, ugly, meagre, lean,Hateful divorce of love,'--thus chides she Death,--'Grim-grinning ghost, earth's worm, what dost thou meanTo stifle beauty and to steal his breath,Who when he lived, his breath and beauty setGloss on the rose, smell to the violet?

'If he be dead,--O no, it cannot be,Seeing his beauty, thou shouldst strike at it:--O yes, it may; thou hast no eyes to see,But hatefully at random dost thou hit.Thy mark is feeble age, but thy false dartMistakes that aim and cleaves an infant's heart.

Why, this might well be compared with the later tragedies. Grim-grinning ghost! As Keats wrote in the margin of his copy of the Sonnets, ‘Lo!’

I hope you enjoy this diversion. I’ve been toying with this for about a year now. I suggest reading along while listening to best absorb the poem. You can read the full text in modern English here, and as it appeared (with older spelling) in 1593, here.

Poor queen of love, in thine own law forlorn,To love a cheek that smiles at thee in scorn!

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