Point of View

Venus and Adonis is written in third-person omniscient point of view. This is a typical perspective for long narrative poems, especially those written during this time. Third-person perspective means that the poem is not from the point of view of any particular character. Rather, the story is told from the perspective of a narrator who is not directly involved in the events. In Venus and Adonis in particular, the narrative voice does not have a very strong perspective, and mostly seems to directly report the poem’s events. The point of view can be said to be omniscient because this narrative voice has access to all the characters’ thoughts. They are able to speak about how everyone is thinking and feeling at any time.

Third-person omniscient perspective is an effective tool for a narrative poem because it allows the poet to tell the story directly...