The Playwright as Poet: Multi talented writers are rare, we focus on playwrights that chose to explore poetry in this collection‪.‬

Two sides of the same coin most would say. And without doubt for the majority of authors in this wide-ranging collection that would be absolutely right.
Shakespeare was equally at home with drama or poetry, but he was exceptional. We have not seen his like before or since on such a scale. His contemporaries Fletcher, Fairfax and the many more that followed sometimes also wove their verse into their dramas and comedies, others such as Marlowe and Behn wrote both within their plays and as separate works.

Words are an exceptional creation. The building blocks of language built to convey, discuss and share our most complex thoughts and ideas and writers, whether they be of prose, poetry or plays, use their given or honed gifts in elaborate ways to explore themes, reflect on happenings; the inky blood that help shape our cultural bodies, our human spirit.

1 - The Playwright As Poet - An Introduction

2 - Song of the Furies by Aeschylus

3 - Fragment by Aeschylus

4 - Long Life Not to Be Desired by Sophocles

5 - The Vine of Bacchus by Sophocles

6 - The Precarious Life of Man by Euripides

7 - O For the Wings of a Dove by Euripides

8 - Song of the Clouds (from The Clouds) by Aristophanes

9 - The Poet's Apology by Aristophanes

10 - Neath This Tall Pine by Plato

11 - Love Asleep by Plato

12 - The Salad or Pesto from the Latin Moretum by Virgil

13 - Heauton Timorumenos (The Self-Tormentor). Prologue by Terence

14 - Sonnet by Miguel de Cervantes

15 - Ovillejos by Miguel de Cervantes

16 - Hot Sun, Cool Fire by George Peele

17 - The Sad Shepherd's Passion of Love by George Peele

18 - I Serve a Mistress by Anthony Munday

19 - In the Mirror of Mutability by Anthony Munday

20 - Yet Might She Love Me by Thomas Kyd

21 - A Description of Fever by George Chapman

22 - Courage by George Chapman

23 - Beauty, Time and Love by Samuel Daniel

24 - Fair is My Love and Cruel as She's Fair by Samuel Daniel

25 - To Night by Lope de Vega

26 - Tomorrow by Lope de Vega

27 - Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare

28 - Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare

29 - Sonnet 14 - Not From the Stars Do I My Judgement Pluck by William Shakespeare

30 - Fair Summer Droops From Summer's Last Will And Testament by Thomas Nashe

31 - A Litany in Time of Plague by Thomas Nashe

32 - On Playwright by Ben Jonson

33 - On Poet-Ape by Ben Jonson

34 - The Passionate Shepherd To His Love by Christopher Marlowe

35 - Who Ever Loved That Loved Not At First Sight by Christopher Marlowe

36 - The Merry Month of May by Thomas Dekker

37 - Heaven by Edward Fairfax

38 - Care Charming Sleep by John Fletcher

39 - A Dirge by John Webster

40 - The Madman's Song by John Webster

41 - How Near I Am to Happiness by Thomas Middleton

42 - Anacreontic by Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft

43 - Friendship by Pieter Cornelisazoon Hooft

44 - Death Invoked by Philip Massinger

45 - The Condition of Kings Human by Philip Massinger

46 - On the Tombs at Westminster Abbey by Francis Beaumont

47 - The Glance by Francis Beaumont

48 - A Bridal Song by John Ford

49 - Oh No More, No More by John Ford

50 - Cease Warring Thoughts by James Shirley

51 - The Glories of Our Blood and State by James Shirley

52 - The Dream Called Life by Pedro Calderon de la Barca

53 - Praise and Prayer by William Davenant

54 - To a Mistress Dying by William Davenant

55 - An Apology For Her Poetry by Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle

56 - The Hunting of the Hare by Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle

57 - Farewell Ungrateful Traitor by John Dryden

58 - T