Death by Rhetorical Trope: Poetry Metamorphosed in Venus and Adonis and the Sonnets

Possible motivations for Shakespeare's delving into poetry during the years between 1592-1594 are presented. Historians believe that financial concerns may have been one primary reason behind his poetry writing, since it was during these years that the theatres were closed as a precaution against the plague. Whatever his motivations were, historians agree that his poetic works contained the same rhetorical strategies that are found in his larger dramatic pieces.