A Lover's Complaint
1609
In a desolate riverside scene, a young woman recounts her devastating seduction and abandonment to a reverend man who discovers her weeping. This is Shakespeare's only sustained dramatic monologue, a form he mastered in his plays but rarely attempted in verse. The woman describes how a charismatic young man, 'a reverend man' himself, wooed her with hollow vows and stolen glances until she surrendered. Now she bears the weight of shattered reputation and hollow promises, caught between self-blame and righteous fury at his deceit. The poem fractures the romantic ideal of the sonnets: where those poems celebrate love's transcendence, this one dissects love as conquest, desire as manipulation, and womanhood as a cage of expectations. It's a痛苦 and surprisingly modern reckoning with how quickly passion becomes a woman's disgrace while the man's reputation remains untouched. The language is ravishing even in its sorrow, full of striking images of baited traps, smooth-tongued predators, and the 'too-too cruel' economy of gendered shame. For readers who know only Shakespeare's comedies and tragedies, this poem reveals another dimension: his willingness to sit with a woman's grief without resolution, without redemption, without easy comfort.
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“Love comforeth like sunshine after rain,But Lust's effect is tempest after sun.Love's gentle spring doth always fresh remain;Lust's winter comes ere summer half be done.Love surfeits not, Lust like a glutton dies;Love is all truth, Lust full of forged lies.””
— William Shakespeare
“The summer's flower is to the summer sweetThough to itself it only live and die””
— William Shakespeare
“When my love swears that she is made of truth,I do believe her, though I know she lies””
— William Shakespeare
“Amore non è amoreSe muta quando scopre un mutamentoO tende a svanire quando l‘altro s‘allontana.Oh no! Amore è un faro sempre fissoChe sovrasta la tempesta e non vacilla mai;È la stella che guida di ogni barca,Il cui valore è sconosciuto, benché nota la distanza.Amore non è soggetto al Tempo, pur se rosee labbraE gote dovran cadere sotto la sua curva lama;Amore non muta in poche ore o settimane,Ma impavido resiste al giorno estremo del giudizio;Se questo è un errore e mi sarà provato,Io non ho mai scritto, e nessuno ha mai amato.””
— William Shakespeare
“When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see.””
— William Shakespeare
“The living record of your memory. 'Gainst death, and all-oblivious enmity Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room Even in the eyes of all posterity That wear this world out to the ending doom.””
— William Shakespeare
“The other two, slight air, and purging fire Are both with thee, wherever I abide; The first my thought, the other my desire,””
— William Shakespeare
“Look what is best, that best I wish in thee: This wish I have; then ten times happy me!””
— William Shakespeare
“Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed, The dear repose for limbs with travel tir'd; But then begins a journey in my head To work my mind, when body's work's expired:””
— William Shakespeare
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Shakespeare, William. A Lover's Complaint. Lex, lex-books.com/book/a-lover-s-complaint-3841a216-6024-4a44-8bf3-928f86d67228.Shakespeare, W. (1609). A Lover's Complaint. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/a-lover-s-complaint-3841a216-6024-4a44-8bf3-928f86d67228Shakespeare, William. A Lover's Complaint. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/a-lover-s-complaint-3841a216-6024-4a44-8bf3-928f86d67228.
