Venus and Adonis is a narrative poem by William Shakespeare published in 1593. It is probably Shakespeare's first publication.The poem tells the story of Venus, who is the goddess of Love, of her unrequited love, and of her attempted seduction of Adonis, an extremely handsome young man, who would rather go hunting. The poem is pastoral, and at times erotic, comic, and tragic. It contains discourses on the nature of love, and brilliantly described observations of nature.It is written in a verse form known as sesta rima, which is a quatrain followed by a couplet. The sesta rima form was also used by Edmund Spenser and Thomas Lodge. The rhyme scheme is ABABCC.It was published originally as a quarto pamphlet and published with great care. It was probably printed using Shakespeare's fair copy. The printer was Richard Field, who also, along with Shakespeare, was from Stratford. Venus and Adonis appeared in print before any of Shakespeare's plays were published, but not before some of his plays had been acted on stage. It has certain qualities in common with the plays A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, and Love's Labour's Lost. It was written when the London theatres were closed for a time due to the plague.The poem begins with a brief dedication to Shakespeare's patron, Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, in which the poet describes the poem as "the first heir of my invention."The poem is inspired by and based on stories found in the Metamorphoses, a narrative poem by the Latin poet, Ovid (43 BC - AD 17/18). Ovid's much briefer version of the tale occurs in book ten of his Metamorphoses. Other stories in Ovid's work are, to a lesser degree, considered sources: the tales of Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, Narcissus, and Pygmalion.It was published about five years before Christopher Marlowe's posthumously published Hero and Leander, which is also a narrative love poem based on a story from Ovid.Venus and Adonis was extremely popular as soon as it was published, and it was reprinted fifteen times before 1640. It is surprising that so few of the original quartos have survived.

Critical essays on Shakespeare's epic poem, "Venus and Adonis".

This Companion provides a full introduction to the poetry of William Shakespeare through discussion of his freestanding narrative poems, the Sonnets, and his plays. Fourteen leading international scholars provide accessible and authoritative chapters on all relevant topics: from Shakespeare's seminal role in the development of English poetry, the wide-ranging practice of his poetic form, and his enigmatic place in print and manuscript culture, to his immersion in English Renaissance politics, religion, classicism, and gender dynamics. With individual chapters on Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, The Passionate Pilgrim, 'The Phoenix and the Turtle', the Sonnets, and A Lover's Complaint, the Companion also includes chapters on the presence of poetry in the dramatic works, on the relation between poetry and performance, and on the reception and influence of the poems. The volume includes a chronology of Shakespeare's life, a note on reference works, and a reading list for each chapter.