The Genius of the Bard of Avon, in Lyric Form. Besides his notorious plays, William Shakespeare wrote many poems throughout his life, including 154 sonnets plus many lyric descriptions from the Greek and Roman mythology like Venus and Adonis or The Rape of Lucrece. In all of them, the Bard of Avon twisted and bent the rules of the Old English language creating a unique and stupendous lyric masterpiece that awe us to this day.