Shakespeare and the Poet's Life

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University Press of Kentucky, 2021 M11 21 - 248 pages

Shakespeare and the Poet's Life explores a central biographical question: why did Shakespeare choose to cease writing sonnets and court-focused long poems like The Rape of Lucrece and Venus and Adonis and continue writing plays? Author Gary Schmidgall persuasively demonstrates the value of contemplating the professional reasons Shakespeare—or any poet of the time—ceased being an Elizabethan court poet and focused his efforts on drama and the Globe. Students of Shakespeare and of Renaissance poetry will find Schmidgall's approach and conclusions both challenging and illuminating.

 

Contents

Thou Thing Most Abhorred The Poet and His Muse
Dedicated Words The Strategies of Front Matter
Chameleon Muse The Poets Life in Shakespeares Courts
Fearful Meditation The Young Man and the Poets Life
Exemplary Front Matter
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About the author (2021)

Gary Schmidgall, professor of English at Hunter College, is the author of numerous books including Conserving Walt Whitman's Fame: Selections from Horace Traubel's Conservator, 1890-1919.

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