Venus and Adonis (Shakespeare poem)

Venus and Adonis (1593) is a poem by Shakespeare on a theme drawn from the Metamorphoses of Ovid. It was probably his first published work.

Quotes

• Hunting he lov'd, but love he laugh'd to scorn.
  • Line 4

• Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear,
  Or like a fairy trip upon the green,
  Or, like a nymph, with long dishevell'd hair,
  Dance on the sands, and yet no footing seen:
  Love is a spirit all compact of fire,
  Not gross to sink, but light, and will aspire.
  • Line 145

• Affection is a coal that must be cool'd;
  Else, suffer'd, it will set the heart on fire.
  • Line 387

• Foul words and frowns must not repel a lover;
  What though the rose have prickles, yet 'tis pluck'd:
  Were beauty under twenty locks kept fast,
  Yet love breaks through and picks them all at last.
  • Line 573

• For where Love reigns, disturbing Jealousy
  Doth call himself Affection's sentinel;
  Gives false alarms, suggesteth mutiny.
  • Line 649

• This carry-tale, dissentious Jealousy,
  That sometime true news, sometime false doth bring.
  • Line 657

• Danger deviseth shifts; wit waits on fear.
  • Line 690

• Love comforteth like sunshine after rain.
  • Line 799

• Lo! here the gentle lark, weary of rest,
  From his moist cabinet mounts up on high,
  And wakes the morning, from whose silver breast
  The sun ariseth in his majesty.
  • Line 853

• Grief hath two tongues: and never woman yet,
  Could rule them both without ten women's wit.
  • Line 1007

• For he being dead, with him is beauty slain,
  And, beauty dead, black chaos comes again.
  • Line 1019