Venus and Adonis
Venus and Adonis,an Ovidian poem by Shakespeare , published 1593 , the same year in which Marlowe's Hero and Leander was registered, and dedicated to Henry Wriothesley , earl of Southampton, who has been connected with the sonnets . The poem is written in sesta rima, a quatrain followed by a couplet, which Spenser used in Astrophel ( 1595 ) and Lodge in Scillaes Metamorphosis ( 1589 ). Shakespeare's poem was probably his first publication, and was first printed by Richard Field , another Stratford man, in 1593 : it was extremely popular, being reprinted at least 15 times before 1640 .
Venus, in love with the youth Adonis, detains him from the chase and woos him, but cannot win his love. She begs him to meet her the next day, but he is then to hunt the boar. She tries in vain to dissuade him. When the morning comes she hears his hounds at bay; filled with terror she goes to look for...
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