Stanza 125 - Explanation

Original Stanza

'Unruly blasts wait on the tender spring;
Unwholesome weeds take root with precious flowers;
The adder hisses where the sweet birds sing;
What virtue breeds iniquity devours:
We have no good that we can say is ours,
But ill-annexed Opportunity
Or kills his life or else his quality.

🔍 Line-by-Line Analysis

Okay, let's break down Stanza 125 from Shakespeare's The Rape of Lucrece line by line, then put it all together to understand its overall meaning.

Line-by-Line Breakdown:

• "Unruly blasts wait on the tender spring;"

  • Breakdown: "Unruly blasts" refers to violent, destructive winds. "Tender spring" represents the delicate and vulnerable season of new growth and hope. "Wait on" means attend or are present, but in a potentially threatening way.
  • Literary Devices:
    • Metaphor: The spring is a metaphor for something delicate, new, and easily harmed.
    • Personification: The blasts "wait on" the spring, giving them a human-like intention.
    • Juxtaposition: The "unruly blasts" and "tender spring" are sharply contrasted, highlighting the vulnerability of goodness to corruption.

• "Unwholesome weeds take root with precious flowers;"

  • Breakdown: "Unwholesome weeds" symbolizes evil or negative influences. "Precious flowers" represent virtue, beauty, and goodness. The weeds thriving alongside the flowers shows that evil and good can coexist and even compete.
  • Literary Devices:
    • Metaphor: Weeds and flowers are metaphors for negativity and positivity respectively.
    • Juxtaposition: Contrasting good and evil, similar to the previous line.
    • Alliteration: The repetition of "w" in "unwholesome weeds" emphasizes the negative aspect.

• "The adder hisses where the sweet birds sing;"

  • Breakdown: "Adder" (a poisonous snake) represents danger, deceit, and malice. "Sweet birds" represent innocence, joy, and harmony. The hissing of the adder interrupting the birdsong represents the intrusion of evil into a place of peace.
  • Literary Devices:
    • Symbolism: The adder and the birds are symbolic of evil and good.
    • Auditory Imagery: "Hisses" and "sing" create contrasting sound images.

• "What virtue breeds iniquity devours:"

  • Breakdown: "Virtue" is goodness, morality, and integrity. "Iniquity" is wickedness, injustice, and evil. This line states directly that evil consumes or destroys the things that virtue creates.
  • Literary Devices:
    • Personification: Iniquity "devours", which gives it a destructive agency.
    • Aphorism: This line is a concise and insightful statement about the nature of good and evil.

• "We have no good that we can say is ours,"

  • Breakdown: This is a statement of despair and vulnerability. It suggests that anything good we possess is not truly secure and can be taken away.
  • Literary Devices:
    • Hyperbole: The statement may be an exaggeration of the extent to which we are vulnerable, however it still conveys a strong feeling of helplessness.

• "But ill-annexed Opportunity"

  • Breakdown: "Ill-annexed Opportunity" refers to a chance or situation that is wrongly or unfortunately connected to something else. It suggests that the only opportunities we seem to have are those that are attached to something negative or dangerous.
  • Literary Devices:
    • Personification: Opportunity is given an attachment and therefore agency.
    • Euphemism: "Ill-annexed Opportunity" is a veiled way of expressing that opportunities are dangerous.

• "Or kills his life or else his quality."

  • Breakdown: "Kills his life" is a straightforward reference to physical death. "Kills his quality" refers to the destruction of one's character, reputation, or essential goodness. The line states that even the opportunities that seem to be available can destroy us either physically or morally.
  • Literary Devices:
    • Parallelism: The structure "kills his life or else his quality" creates a balanced and emphatic statement.
    • Irony: The idea of "opportunity" leading to death or degradation is deeply ironic.

Overall Meaning:

This stanza expresses a profound sense of pessimism and vulnerability in the face of evil. It argues that goodness is constantly threatened by destructive forces, that evil can corrupt and destroy even the most virtuous things, and that true security and possession of good are illusory. The stanza suggests that opportunity itself is dangerous, leading either to physical death or to the corruption of one's character. Ultimately, the stanza paints a bleak picture of a world where evil prevails and goodness is fragile and easily overcome. This ties into the central themes of The Rape of Lucrece, as Lucrece's virtue is destroyed through a violent act of evil.