A Lover's Complaint

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A Lover's Complaint is a narrative poem traditionally attributed to William Shakespeare, often printed alongside his sonnets and written in the voice of a jilted young woman lamenting her betrayal in love.

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Statements (46)

Predicate Object
instanceOf narrative poem
poem
approximateLineCount 329
attributionDebatedBy literary scholars
author William Shakespeare NERFINISHED
countryOfOrigin England
firstPublication 1609
form rhyme royal
frameNarrator an old man listening to the young woman
genre complaint poem
narrative poetry
hasCharacter elderly listener
jilted maiden
seducing young man
includedIn many modern editions of Shakespeare's poems
influencedBy Chaucerian complaint poems
Samuel Daniel's Complaint to Rosamond NERFINISHED
language English
literaryDevice dramatic monologue
retrospective narration
literaryPeriod Elizabethan era NERFINISHED
Jacobean era NERFINISHED
literaryTradition complaint tradition
metre iambic pentameter
narrativeVoice jilted young woman
numberOfStanzas 47
period English Renaissance NERFINISHED
placeOfPublication London, England
surface form: London
printedAlongside Shakespeare's Sonnets NERFINISHED
publishedIn Shake-speares Sonnets (1609) NERFINISHED
publisher Thomas Thorpe NERFINISHED
questionedAttribution yes
rhymeScheme ababbcc
setting rural landscape
stanzaForm seven-line stanzas
structure frame narrative
subjectMatter a young woman recounting her seduction and desertion
theme betrayal in love
emotional suffering
female lament
inconstancy in love
seduction and abandonment
tone melancholic
plaintive
traditionalAttribution William Shakespeare NERFINISHED
verseForm rhymed iambic pentameter

Referenced by (1)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

works of William Shakespeare includesWork A Lover's Complaint
subject surface form: Works of William Shakespeare