Stanza 186 - Explanation

Original Stanza

Her maid is gone, and she prepares to write,
First hovering o’er the paper with her quill.
Conceit and grief an eager combat fight;
What wit sets down is blotted straight with will;
This is too curious-good, this blunt and ill.
Much like a press of people at a door,
Throng her inventions, which shall go before.

🔍 Line-by-Line Analysis

Okay, let's break down Stanza 186 of Shakespeare's The Rape of Lucrece line by line, identify literary devices, and then discuss the overall meaning.

Line-by-Line Breakdown:

• "Her maid is gone, and she prepares to write,"

  • Meaning: The maid has left Lucrece alone. Lucrece is now getting ready to write something down, presumably to record the events of the night. This signifies her intention to take action, to document and potentially seek redress for the wrong done to her.
  • Literary Device: Sets the scene and creates a sense of isolation for Lucrece.

• "First hovering o’er the paper with her quill."

  • Meaning: Before she actually puts pen to paper, she hesitates, hovering the quill above the surface. This suggests internal conflict, uncertainty, and the weight of what she is about to do.
  • Literary Device: Imagery - the visual of the quill hovering creates tension and suspense. Alliteration - "hovering" and "her"

• "Conceit and grief an eager combat fight;"

  • Meaning: Two opposing forces - her reason/thought (Conceit - idea, thought) and her emotional pain (grief) - are battling within her. "Eager combat" emphasizes the intensity of this internal struggle.
  • Literary Device: Personification - Conceit and grief are given human qualities of combatants. Metaphor - The internal conflict is presented as a physical fight.

• "What wit sets down is blotted straight with will;"

  • Meaning: Anything that her intellect (wit) manages to write is immediately crossed out or erased because of her strong emotions (will, in this case meaning passionate desire, impulse or determination arising from extreme grief). This underscores the dominance of emotion over reason in her current state.
  • Literary Device: Contrast - wit vs. will. Alliteration - "wit", "with"

• "This is too curious-good, this blunt and ill."

  • Meaning: She is judging her own writing, finding it either overly clever ("curious-good") or too plain and inadequate ("blunt and ill"). She is not satisfied with any way she is trying to articulate her experience.
  • Literary Device: Antithesis - "curious-good" contrasts with "blunt and ill". Asyndeton - the lack of conjunctions creates a sense of hurried thought.

• "Much like a press of people at a door,"

  • Meaning: This introduces a simile to describe the chaos of her thoughts. "Press of people at a door" evokes an image of a crowd struggling to get through an entrance all at once.
  • Literary Device: Simile - "Much like" indicates a comparison. Imagery - vivid image of a crowd pushing and shoving.

• "Throng her inventions, which shall go before."

  • Meaning: Her "inventions" (thoughts, ideas, ways of phrasing her experience) are crowding and pushing each other, struggling to be the one that comes out first – to be the way she expresses what has happened. "Go before" alludes to the challenge of deciding what to write first.
  • Literary Device: Metaphor - "inventions" are personified as being able to "throng".

Overall Meaning:

This stanza depicts the tumultuous and confused mental state of Lucrece as she attempts to write about the rape. The overwhelming trauma she experienced has thrown her into a state of internal conflict where reason and emotion clash violently. She is unable to articulate her experience clearly or effectively because her thoughts are jumbled, contradictory, and constantly being overridden by her grief. The image of the crowd at the door powerfully conveys the feeling of being overwhelmed by too many conflicting ideas, none of which feel adequate to express the enormity of her situation. It highlights her paralysis and the struggle to find the right words or approach to deal with the violation.

In essence, the stanza shows the difficulty of translating intense trauma into language. Lucrece is struggling not just with what to say, but how to say it, and the act of writing becomes another form of torment in itself.