A Lover's Complaint
Tags
Summary
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Literary readers studying Shakespeare's poetry and the sonnet tradition
- Close readers interested in narrative perspective and the theme of women's complaint
- Teachers and students needing a short English poem for classroom analysis or translation practice
Not a good fit for
- Readers of Shakespeare's plays expecting full dramatic plot and strong conflict
- Casual readers with no interest in poetic language and rhetorical analysis
Reading tips
- Read through once to grasp the complaint frame, then analyze the speaker's rhetoric and emotional shifts paragraph by paragraph.
- Read it alongside sonnets by Shakespeare on desire and betrayal.
- Note the double voices of the old man and the young woman, and consider the reliability of the narration.
About the publisher
Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.
Contents
- 1
- 2
FAQ
Why does this poem often appear together with the sonnets?
It's short—is it a good introduction to Shakespeare?
What should I pay attention to while reading?
Comments
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About the author
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was the greatest playwright, poet and actor of the English Renaissance. Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, he is known as the "Bard of Avon." He wrote roughly thirty-seven to thirty-nine plays, one hundred and fifty-four sonnets and narrative poems. His representative works include Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. His works span tragedy, comedy and history play, distinguished by rich, poetic language and profound characterization. His explorations of human nature, power, love and fate have had a lasting influence, and his works have been translated into many languages and circulated widely around the world.
