"A Lover's Complaint" is a narrative poem published as an appendix to the original edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets. It is given the title "A Lover's Complaint" in the book, which was published by Thomas Thorpe in 1609.

It is a little woeful poem about a lover with the length of 329 lines. As the title suggests, this Shakespeare work is a complaint poem. This type of poem is popular in Medieval and Renaissance times. Authors of complaint poems narrated stories of unrequited love, personal difficulties, injustice, poverty, or another social problem. Sometime they spiced their poems with satire. A complaint poem often appeared at the end of a collection of other poems.

William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 (baptised) – 23 April 1616)was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His extant works, including some collaborations, consist of around 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, of which the authorship of some is uncertain. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.