Summaries of 10 Plays Written by William Shakespeare

This is how I have decided to address some frequently asked questions regarding William Shakespeare such as What is Shakespeare best known for? How many plays did William Shakespeare write?

Here are summaries of 10 different plays written by William Shakespeare:

1. Romeo and Juliet: A tragic love story between two young people from rival families in Verona, Italy.

2. Hamlet: A young prince of Denmark seeks revenge on his uncle, who murdered his father and married his mother.

3. Macbeth: A Scottish general becomes consumed by ambition and murders the king to take the throne, but his guilt leads to his downfall.

4. Othello: A Moorish general in the Venetian army is manipulated by his jealous and deceitful ensign, leading to his tragic downfall.

5. Julius Caesar: The assassination of the Roman emperor by conspirators, including his friend Brutus, leads to a civil war in Rome.

6. King Lear: An aging king divides his kingdom among his three daughters based on their flattery, leading to tragic consequences.

7. The Tempest: A magician and former Duke of Milan conjures a storm to shipwreck his enemies on his island and seek revenge.

8. A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A whimsical tale of four young Athenian lovers who become entangled in a conflict between the fairy king and queen.

9. Twelfth Night: A romantic comedy involving mistaken identity, gender-bending, and a love triangle between a duke, a countess, and a young woman disguised as a man.

10. Antony and Cleopatra: The romantic and political relationship between the Roman general Mark Antony and the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, leading to their tragic deaths.

Two Lovers By George Eliot

According to my view:- 
In this poem, George Eliot was so preoccupied with how most of the true love relationship begins and ends by showing six different phases to it. She used a third person point of view and her tone was so full delight and emphasis.

Born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England on the 22nd of November 1819; Mary Ann Evan is Victorian era English poet and novelist. She wrote under the pen name “George Eliot” it is said that she chose the pen name so that people would take her literary works seriously. She died at age 61 in Chelsea, Middlesex, England on the 22nd of December 1880. One among many of her notable work is “The Mill On The Floss(1860)

The Poem:-
Two lovers by a moss-grown spring:
They leaned soft cheeks together there,
Mingled the dark and sunny hair,
And heard the wooing thrushes sing.
O budding time!
O love’s blest prime!

Two wedded from the portal stept:
The bells made happy carolings,
The air was soft as fanning wings,
White petals on the pathway slept.
O pure-eyed bride!
O tender pride!

Two faces o’er a cradle bent:
Two hands above the head were locked:
These pressed each other while they rocked,
Those watched a life that love had sent.
O solemn hour!
O hidden power!

Two parents by the evening fire:
The red light fell about their knees
On heads that rose by slow degrees
Like buds upon the lily spire.
O patient life!
O tender strife!

The two still sat together there,
The red light shone about their knees;
But all the heads by slow degrees
Had gone and left that lonely pair.
O voyage fast!
O vanished past!

The red light shone upon the floor
And made the space between them wide;
They drew their chairs up side by side,
Their pale cheeks joined, and said, “Once more!”
O memories!
O past that is!

Copyright © by George Eliot (all right reserved)

The Proud King by William Morris (Souced)

When it comes to the analysis of The Proud King by William Morris, naijapoets.com has taken time to examine the poem and compare it with other recommended reading for the final certificate examination (WASSCE/WAEC)


The Proud King by William Morris is a 819-line-long poem about a proud king named Jovinian whose pride led him comparing himself to God. Larger lenght of the poem shows him suffer his pride until he repented and regained his crown, thrown and status.

This poem by William Morris is a narrative poetry, and its language seems elizabethan in nature. The poem in part reckons with God which leads us to the Theme of Divine Punishment in The Proud King by William Morris besides that, there are other themes [Themes Of The Proud King By William Morris] about The Proud King by William Morris.

How Fictitious Is The Proud King By William Morris

Write On The Epic Elements In The Proud King By William Morris

Discuss Morality In The Proud King By William Morris With References From The Poem

Few of the figures of speech in the poem The Proud King are as follows:-
(1) Allusion: To be precise, the poem has a biblical allusion in lines 299-300 “_Well; _if thou canst, deny me, with such grace/ As by the fire-light Peter swore of old”. It alluded to Peter’s denial of Jesus Christ in John 18: 25-26.

(2) Enjambment: “And thinking of his life, and fair increase/ Of all his goods, a happy man was he” (lines 248-249) is one among the enjambments in the poem.

(3) Rhetorical Questions: The poem “The Proud King” by William Morris also has so many instances of rhetorical questions and as well known, few of the traits of dramatic monologue are rhetorical questions and direct quotations. In lines 633-636 “And said “Alas! my master and my son/ Is this a dream my wearied eyes behold?…”

(4) Irony:- Precisely the use of dramatic irony in the poem. The concept of the king’s identity seems ironic in the sense that only the king and the readers of the poem understood the king’s predicament; no one else.

(5) Repetition:- There are many instances of repetition in the poem, most the repetition of words and phrases such as “king” “robe” “God” “forgetting” etc.

Crossing The Bar By Lord Alfred Tennyson (Sourced)

Crossing The Bar by Lord Alfred Tennyson 1809-1892, such a poem can be considered an elegy. It was note that Tennyson asked his son to always add this poem to the end of his anthologies. As a sign of closure to his life on earth and to his world of poetic living. A four stanza poem with four lines each stanza. The poem holds a simple diction flowed with metaphors and symbolisms; it has a rhyme pattern of ABAB CDCD, etc.

The poem speaks of the poet’s readiness to embark on an evening journey of no return; through the sea, when the sunset, the evening star, the twilight and evening bell are present. He urged the people not to give him a mournful farewell since his journey would be deep and far. He ended the poem with wish or hope to see his pilot face to face.

The theme of old age and death which is followed by sorrow. Alfred Tennyson compared his death to sailing the sea; “When I put out to sea” (in line 4) and out of experience, he knew the kind of sadness that follows death so he warned them not sorrow when he’s gone. “And may there be no moaning of the bar/When I put out to sea” (in line 3-4) and “And may there be no sadness of farewell/When I embark”

The theme of human mortality. In this poem, Lord Alfred Tennyson, shows human’s susceptibility to death in spite of the effort, every Genesis must have Revelation; described in the poem stanza 2:
“But such a tide as moving seems asleep
Too full for sound and foam
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turn again home”

There are symbolism, metaphor, simile, repetition, alliteration, etc. In the poem, bar symbolizes grave, pilot symbolizes God, sunset and twilight and evening bell and evening star all symbolize old age. “drew from out the boundless deep” is a clause that symbolizes the womb.

Imageries exist in the poem and some are of sight while some hearing. The following are few of the imageries: “And clear call for me” in line 2, “no moaning of the bar” in line 3, “out the boundless deep” in line 7, “And after that the dark!” in 10.

Metaphors are “sadness of warefell” in line 11, “out our bourne of Time and Place” in line 13. The biggest part of it is that the poem was woven with metaphor where Tennyson compared his dying to sailing the sea “Too full for sound and foam” (in line 6)

Alliterations as follows: “Sunset and evening star” in line 1. “clear call” in line 2. “flood may bear me far” in line 14, “face to face”. Repetitions that can be seen in the poem are “bar” “evening” “When I” “And may there be no…” simile is “such a tide as moving seem asleep” It is noticed that line 7-8 is a paradoxical antithesis.

Lord Alfred Tennyson lived 83years on earth; he was born 1809-1892

The Pulley By George Herbert (Sourced)

Here are the themes of the poem, “The Pulley” by George Herbert:
(1) The limitation in human existence
(2) The blessings bestowed man through creation
(3) The problems associated to riches
(4) The vanity of possessions in presence of loneliness

The following are the figuratives within the poem:
(1) Rhyme pattern of ABABA CDCDC, etc.
(2) Personification in line 19-20 “If goodne
ss lead him not, yet weariness/May toss him to my breast”
(3) Allusion to the creation story in the scripture
(4) Alliteration in “made man” in line 1, “repining restlessness” in line 17
(5) Assonance in “weary that at least” in line 18, “lead him not, yet weariness” in line 19.
(6) Repetitions are “God” “rest” “Nature” “riches” “said he”

Structure of the Poem can be considered a classical one where stanza, end rhyme pattern and rhythm are very important but the poem does not hold a specific rhythm. Out of the four(4) stanzas of the poem, the first and the last lines of each stanza are of equal length (trimeter) but the second, third, and fourth are not clearly equal in each stanza.

The poem: “The Pulley” by George Herbert has a to total of twenty(20) lines divided into five(5) lines per stanza; each line with end rhyme pattern of ABABA, CDCDC, etc. The first stanza was about the reason why God endowed man during creation, the second stanza showed all the endowments, the third stanza was about the reason God gave man a companion, the last stanza was about how all the blessings and possessions given will lead man back to God’s bosom.

The Pulley is a poem that revealed that when God created man, he created him blessings like strength, beauty, wisdom, honour, pleasure but place man under a contract that will put him and his possessions to an end at certain short peroid of time:
“‘Let us” said he “pour on him all we can”
Let the world’s riches which despersed lie
Contract into a span”
Poem further narrates that when when God realised that man’s treasures are meaningless in his loneliness, he provided him companion in association with his riches which would bring him regrets and weariness and the two will make his life come to an end.

Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer’s Day by William Shakespeare (Facts)

 

  • William Shakespeare was an English poet and writer
  • Anne Hathaway was the name of his wife
  • William Shakespeare (April 26, 1564-April 23, 1616) was 52 years old before death.
  • Sonnet 18 was also speaking of love. That is why the theme of love, the theme of immunity and the theme of immortality can be found in the poem.
  • Shakespeare revealed his love through the image of beauty, simplicity and certainty. He compared his lover to “…a summer’s day?/ thou art more lovely and more temperate” (line 1 and 2) because those qualities of hers, he cherished
  • The poet’s lover was immune to aging and death. From line 3-8, he wrote how summer, sun, flower, etc. come and later die or disappear; starting from line 9, he told the readers that his own lover will neither grow old, lose beauty nor die.
  • There is also the theme of immortality:
“When in eternal lines of time thou grow’st.

 

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”(line 12-14)

 

  • The poet made us to know that his lover will live forever as far as men live and eyes continue to see things written because he has immortalized her with this Sonnet 18; that’s the power of poetry.