“Be great in act, as you have been in thought.”
- William Shakespeare
My favorite poet is William Shakespeare, a distinguished poet and playwright. I was intrigued by his creativeness from the poems and stories he wrote during his life. For example, poems like Venus and Adonis, the Passionate Pilgrim are all very interesting poems he came up with. The poems are written in such a way that the feelings of the characters are clearly expressed which makes the poem very interesting and captivating. In one of his poem, All the World’s a Stage, it expressed his love for performing on a stage. The poem was mainly describing the life of a man, starting from which the man was still a baby, till the end whereby he was an old man. The poem caught my attention as it correctly describes a man when he is young, or old. For example, he wrote that the child did not dare go to school, since the child felt uncertain about feeling his protected environment. In the later stage, he wrote about the man, now middle aged, having gained wisdom through his experiences. That is true, as everyone of us, be it a scholar or a beggar, gains new experience as they live and experience new things. Furthermore, his poems were extremely expressive, as they showed his friendship for another man, as suggested in the poems he wrote.
William Shakespeare
Here, I’ll write about the history of William Shakespeare, a poet and a playwright, Shakespeare surviving works include 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two narrative poems and several other poems. Born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, who bore him three children. He began a successful career in London, as an actor, writer as well as a part owner of a playing company. He was well enough known in London by then to be attacked in print by the playwright Robert Greene:
...there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tiger's heart wrapped in a Player's hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country.
Scholars differ on the exact meaning of these words, but most agree that Greene is accusing Shakespeare of reaching above his rank in trying to match university-educated writers, such as Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe and Greene himself. The italicised phrase parodying the line "Oh, tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide" from Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 3, along with the pun "Shake-scene", identifies Shakespeare as Greene’s target.
Few evidence about his private life were left and thus, people speculated about his appearance, sexuality, etc. Most of his works were created between 1589 and 1613, mostly of the genre comedy and history. After which, he then wrote tragedies such as Macbeth, Hamlet, etc. Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 and was survived by his wife and two daughters. Shakespeare was buried in the chancel of the Holy Trinity Church two days after his death. The stone slab covering his grave is inscribed with a curse against moving his bones:
Good frend for Iesvs sake forbeare,
To digg the dvst encloased heare.
Blest be ye man yt spares thes stones,
And cvrst be he yt moves my bones.
Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the nineteenth century. In the twentieth century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are constantly studied, performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.
(Wikipedia)
The poems includes
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun by William Shakespeare
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
The Blossom by William Shakespeare
ON a day--alack the day!--
Love, whose month is ever May,
Spied a blossom passing fair
Playing in the wanton air:
Through the velvet leaves the wind
All unseen 'gan passage find;
That the lover, sick to death,
Wish'd himself the heaven's breath.
Air, quoth he, thy cheeks may blow;
Air, would I might triumph so!
But, alack, my hand is sworn
Ne'er to pluck thee from thy thorn:
Vow, alack, for youth unmeet;
Youth so apt to pluck a sweet!
Do not call it sin in me
That I am forsworn for thee;
Thou for whom e'en Jove would swear
Juno but an Ethiop were;
And deny himself for Jove,
Turning mortal for thy love.

Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind by William Shakespeare
Blow, blow, thou winter wind
Thou art not so unkind
As man's ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most freindship if feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then heigh-ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly.
Freeze, freeze thou bitter sky,
That does not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As a friend remembered not.
Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship if feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then heigh-ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly.