The Phoenix and the Turtle

By William Shakespeare

Introduction

The Phoenix and the Turtle is one of Shakespeare’s most enigmatic and philosophically rich poems. Published in Love’s Martyr (1601), it stands apart for its unusual blend of allegory, metaphysics, and ritualistic solemnity. Shakespeare imagines a ceremonial mourning for two symbolic birds whose love is so idealized that the natural world cannot contain it. Their union challenges logic, reason, and even the very definitions of self and other.

The poem unfolds in two movements: the funeral procession and anthem for the dead lovers, followed by the “Threnos,” a concluding lament. Through these, Shakespeare explores the nature of absolute fidelity, the fragility of purity, and the paradox of unity that destroys individuality.

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Full Poem: The Phoenix And The Turtle (1601)

Let the bird of loudest lay
On the sole Arabian tree
Herald sad and trumpet be,
To whose sound chaste wings obey.

But thou, shrieking harbinger,
Foul precurrer of the fiend,
Augur of the fever’s end,
To this troop come thou not near.

From this session interdict
Every fowl of tyrant wing,
Save the eagle, feather’d king:
Keep the obsequy so strict.

Let the priest in surplice white,
That defunctive music can,
Be the death-divining swan,
Lest the requiem lack his right.

And thou treble-dated crow,
That thy sable gender mak’st
With the breath thou giv’st and tak’st,
’Mongst our mourners shalt thou go.

Here the anthem doth commence:
Love and constancy is dead;
Phoenix and the Turtle fled
In a mutual flame from hence.

So they lov’d, as love in twain
Had the essence but in one:
Two distincts, division none;
Number there in love was slain.

Hearts remote, yet not asunder;
Distance, and no space was seen
’Twixt this Turtle and his queen:
But in them it were a wonder.

So between them love did shine,
That the Turtle saw his right
Flaming in the Phoenix’ sight:
Either was the other’s mine.

Property was thus appall’d,
That the self was not the same;
Single nature’s double name
Neither two nor one was call’d.

Reason, in itself confounded,
Saw division grow together;
To themselves yet either neither;
Simple were so well compounded.

That it cried, “How true a twain
Seemeth this concordant one!
Love hath reason, reason none,
If what parts can so remain.”

Whereupon it made this threne
To the Phoenix and the Dove,
Co-supremes and stars of love,
As Chorus to their tragic scene.

THRENOS

Beauty, truth, and rarity,
Grace in all simplicity,
Here enclos’d in cinders lie.

Death is now the Phoenix’ nest;
And the Turtle’s loyal breast
To eternity doth rest,

Leaving no posterity:
’Twas not their infirmity,
It was married chastity.

Truth may seem, but cannot be;
Beauty brag, but ’tis not she;
Truth and beauty buried be.

To this urn let those repair
That are either true or fair;
For these dead birds sigh a prayer.

Originally published in Love’s Martyr (1601) by William Shakespeare. Public domain.

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Analysis

A haunting meditation on perfect unity and the cost of absolute devotion.

Shakespeare’s Most Mysterious Allegory

Unlike the sonnets or the longer narrative poems, The Phoenix and the Turtle reads like an intricate ceremonial ritual. Shakespeare isn’t telling a straightforward story. Instead, he constructs an allegorical world where each bird symbolizes a different moral or spiritual principle. The Phoenix represents immortality, purity, and singularity. The Turtle Dove represents constancy and faithful love. Their bond becomes a mythic emblem of an ideal so flawless that it cannot exist within the flawed realm of human experience.

From the very beginning, Shakespeare frames their story as a high ritual. Certain birds, like the “bird of loudest lay,” are allowed to attend the funeral. Others, such as the “shriking harbinger,” are forbidden. These symbolic exclusions suggest that only those who embody nobility, fidelity, and grace may witness such purity.

A Love That Collapses Identity

One of the poem’s most striking ideas is that the Phoenix and the Turtle Dove love each other so completely that their identities blend into one. Shakespeare writes that they are “two distincts, division none.” In their bond, individuality dissolves without erasing the dignity of each lover. Their unity is not fusion but a mysterious state in which both remain themselves while also becoming one.

This radical idea challenges even the laws of reason. Shakespeare personifies Reason itself, which becomes baffled by the lovers’ paradox. It observes that division and unity coexist. It sees that the lovers are “neither two nor one,” a state impossible to describe using the logic of the physical world.

The Threnos: The Death of Ideals

The final section, the Threnos, deepens the poem’s solemn tone. It suggests that with the lovers’ death, something larger perishes: the lofty ideals of truth, beauty, and rarity. Shakespeare writes that “Truth and beauty buried be,” implying that the world has lost its purest embodiments of these virtues. Their deaths leave no descendants, no legacy except the reverence of those who seek what is “true or fair.”

In this way, the poem becomes not just a lament for two allegorical birds, but a meditation on the fragility of the highest ideals. It asks whether perfection, once glimpsed, can survive long in the world. And it suggests that purity, by its very nature, may be too delicate to endure.

A Glimpse Into Shakespeare’s Metaphysical Side

Stylistically, The Phoenix and the Turtle aligns Shakespeare with the metaphysical poets of the next generation. Its logical puzzles, philosophical imagery, and abstract allegory echo writers like John Donne and George Herbert. Shakespeare shows here that he could move beyond drama and lyric into intellectual poetry, expanding his creative reach.

Despite its difficulty, the poem continues to fascinate readers. Its riddles invite interpretation but resist full explanation. That lingering mystery is part of what makes the poem so powerful. It stands as one of the few works in Shakespeare’s canon that feels utterly unique: a solemn, symbolic, beautifully perplexing elegy for a love too perfect for the world.