Venus and Adonis
Categories: Literature & Fiction
First published in 1593, this narrative poem retells a myth from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Venus, goddess of love, pursues the young hunter Adonis with pleading, argument and force, while he wants only to ride out to the hunt. Written in six-line stanzas and dedicated to the Earl of Southampton, the poem mixes comedy, eroticism and pathos. This edition prints the English text beside Hafid Bouazza's Dutch translation, with illustrations by Marlene Dumas.
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