Venus and Adonis, a funny and erotic narrative poem loosely based on Ovid's Metamorphosis, was published by Richard Field, a Stratford neighbor of Shakespeare's, probably a childhood friend, who was fast becoming one of London's leading booksellers/publishers.

A far more serious narrative poem, The Rape of Lucrece, was published in May 1594. This poem was also dedicated to the Earl of Southampton, but the formal tone of the first poem's dedication was altered with words of a certain warm familiarity. Some scholars have suggested that this “familiarity” constituted a homosexual relationship.

One of the ironies of Shakespeare's life is that in his day he was famous not as the creator of Lear, Othello, Prospero, or Hamlet, but as the playwright of Titus Andronicus and the author of Venus and Adonis. No doubt, to Shakespeare's joy, The Rape of Lucrece was reprinted at least nine times during his lifetime.

Both Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece are full of gorgeous imagery and pagan spirit, and they are obviously the work of an intense young man. The fame that these two poems brought to Shakespeare no doubt substantially raised his profile as a serious writer, and, when the theaters reopened in 1594, helped the by-now thirty-year-old actor/playwright join Richard Burbage's acting company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men.

Although Shakespeare was successful writing his sonnets, it is not known how he felt about playwrighting. Searching for clues about Shakespeare's theatrical ambitions, we must go to his poetry for clues. Sonnet 111 says:

Scholars generally agree that Shakespeare was being both sarcastic and ironic. But most scholars also agree that “harmful deeds” refers to his success in the theater, and the reference to his name receiving a “brand” (in the sense we would talk about a brand name today) because of his theatrical associations is unmistakable. The American scholar Oscar James Campbell (A Shakespeare Encyclopaedia, 1966) said there was “little doubt for which achievement he wished to be remembered: the preservation of the plays is owed to the efforts of others [meaning the people who published the First Folio], the [two early narrative] poems Shakespeare seems to have seen through the press himself.”