Critics call Twelfth Night one of William Shakespeare's most poetic and musical works. Shakespeare writes poetic verse for the main characters, Viola, Orsino, and Olivia, and gives the Fool and other minor characters songs to sing throughout the play. The particularly romantic lines of the work make it seem as if the characters are professional poets themselves. Shakespeare also uses music and poetry in Twelfth Night to foreshadow what will happen for the rest of the play and to reveal the play's major themes. Music and poetry become the main characters of the work itself. The opening soliloquy of Scene I of Act I, given by Duke Orsino, is another perfect example of Shakespeare using music to show the upcoming plot of the play. At the beginning Orsino uses music as a metaphor that feeds the appetite of love. He talks for a minute about his love of music, then abruptly changes to say, “Enough; no more” (7). Shakespeare already prefigures Orsino's fickleness towards music, which in turn represents love. Of course, later in the play, it is shown that Orsino is truly fickle when it comes to love. As soon as he discovers that Cesario is actually Viola, he immediately forgets all the passion he had for Olivia and marries Viola. Another part of Orsino's opening speech that shows a piece of the future plot is the part where he talks about love being “receives like the sea” (11). This can be interpreted as a demonstration that love will come by sea. In the next scene, Viola appears in Illyria from a shipwreck. Even Sebastiano, even if Shakespeare does not say it at that moment, enters the scene due to the same shipwreck. Shakespeare predicts, very subtly, that these are t...... middle of paper ...... one of the antics at the beginning of the play to woo Olivia succeeds Orsino and Viola's initial plan does not blossom at first . This line concludes the part of Feste's song in which he provides a synopsis of the opera. The last two verses are addressed to the audience and Feste thanks them. Shakespeare cleverly uses music and poetry to guide the audience through the play and give them a glimpse of what is to come, if the audience chooses to pay close attention. However, it is not always clear what the song means, and depending on the character performing the song or poem, it is more comical than meaningful to the performance. By the end of the show, the audience has accepted that music and poetry are themes in the show as much as dressing up and love, but they are mixed so carefully that neither poetry nor love overshadows anything in the show..