🌹 Stanza 106 - Literary Analysis

Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis

📖 Original Stanza

‘Alas! he nought esteems that face of thine,
To which Love’s eyes pay tributary gazes;   
Nor thy soft hands, sweet lips, and crystal eyne,
Whose full perfection all the world amazes;
But having thee at vantage, wondrous dread!
Would root these beauties as he roots the mead.

🔍 Line-by-Line Analysis

Line 1: ‘Alas! he nought esteems that face of thine,

"Alas!": An exclamation of sorrow, pity, or lamentation, indicating Venus's despair and urgency in her warning to Adonis.
"he nought esteems": "He" refers to the boar. "Nought" means nothing. "Esteems" means values or holds in high regard. Venus is asserting that the boar places no value whatsoever on her beauty. Shakespeare uses "nought" for a concise and emphatic negative.
"that face of thine": Refers to Venus's own famously beautiful face, emphasizing her divine beauty which is usually irresistible.
Meaning: "Alas! The boar completely disregards and values nothing about your (Venus's) beautiful face,"

Line 2: To which Love’s eyes pay tributary gazes;

"To which": Refers back to "that face of thine," indicating the recipient of these gazes.
"Love’s eyes": A personification of the concept of Love itself (perhaps Cupid, or the very essence of love), implying that even the deity or principle of Love is captivated by Venus's beauty. This elevates her beauty to an almost divine, universally acknowledged standard.
"pay tributary gazes": A "tribute" is a payment or act of homage. Here, it is not money but "gazes"—adoring, reverent looks. It means that Love itself pays homage to Venus's beauty by gazing upon it in admiration, highlighting the extraordinary power of her allure.
Meaning: "To which even the eyes of Love itself offer respectful and adoring looks."

Line 3: Nor thy soft hands, sweet lips, and crystal eyne,

"Nor": Continues the negative assertion from the first line; the boar also does not value these features.
"thy soft hands, sweet lips": Specific physical attributes of Venus, emphasizing her gentle, alluring, and sensual nature. These are quintessential symbols of feminine beauty and tenderness.
"crystal eyne": "Eyne" is an archaic plural form of "eyes." "Crystal" implies clarity, purity, and a dazzling or sparkling quality. It suggests eyes that are bright, clear, and perhaps as radiant as crystal. Shakespeare chooses "crystal" to evoke both purity and brilliance.
Meaning: "Nor does it value your tender hands, sweet lips, and clear, sparkling eyes,"

Line 4: Whose full perfection all the world amazes;

"Whose full perfection": Refers to all the features just listed (face, hands, lips, eyes), emphasizing the complete and absolute nature of Venus's beauty.
"all the world amazes": "Amazes" means to fill with wonder, astonishment, or bewilderment. This is hyperbole, asserting that her beauty is so profound it universally astounds and captivates everyone.
Meaning: "The complete and utter beauty of which astounds and bewilders everyone in the world;"

Line 5: But having thee at vantage, wondrous dread!

"But having thee at vantage": "Vantage" means a position giving a superior opportunity or advantage. Venus warns that if the boar catches Adonis (representing Venus's beloved, or her beauty metaphorically) in a vulnerable position, it will be destructive.
"wondrous dread!": An exclamation of intense fear or horror. "Wondrous" here means remarkably or exceptionally. It emphasizes the terrible and horrifying nature of the boar's potential advantage, conveying Venus's profound fear for Adonis.
Meaning: "But if it were to catch you (or your beauty) in a vulnerable position, oh, how truly dreadful that would be!"

Line 6: Would root these beauties as he roots the mead.

"Would root these beauties": "Root" here means to dig up, tear up, or ravage, much like a pig uses its snout to dig in the earth for food. "These beauties" refers to all of Venus's physical perfections that she has described, implying the boar would brutally destroy them. Shakespeare uses this vivid verb to convey the boar's crude, violent power.
"as he roots the mead": "Mead" is an archaic word for a meadow or grassland. This simile directly compares the boar's destructive potential to its natural, indiscriminate action of tearing up the ground of a meadow. It highlights the boar's raw, unthinking force.
Meaning: "It would violently tear up and destroy these beautiful features just as it digs up and devastates a meadow."

🎭 Literary Devices

Device	Example	Effect
Personification	"Love’s eyes pay tributary gazes"	Gives the abstract concept of Love human attributes (eyes, paying tribute), elevating Venus's beauty to such a degree that even Love itself bows before it, emphasizing its extraordinary power and allure.
Hyperbole	"Whose full perfection all the world amazes"	An exaggeration used to emphasize the overwhelming and universal impact of Venus's beauty, making her physical attributes seem almost divine and irresistible to all.
Simile	"Would root these beauties as he roots the mead"	Compares the boar's violent destruction of Venus's (or Adonis's) beauty to its natural act of digging up a meadow. This vivid comparison underscores the boar's brutal, indiscriminate, and unthinking nature, contrasting it sharply with the delicate beauty it would destroy. It also foreshadows Adonis's violent death.
Imagery	"soft hands, sweet lips, and crystal eyne"	Creates a vivid sensory picture of Venus's delicate and appealing features, highlighting her ideal beauty. "Crystal eyne" suggests clarity, purity, and perhaps a sparkling quality.
Alliteration	"wondrous dread", "soft hands, sweet lips"	The repetition of initial consonant sounds ("w", "s") creates a pleasing musicality, drawing attention to these phrases and emphasizing the horror ("wondrous dread") or the sensuality ("soft hands, sweet lips") of Venus's description.
Archaism	"nought", "thine", "eyne", "mead"	The use of older words contributes to the poem's classical and poetic atmosphere, lending a sense of timelessness and formality appropriate for a mythological narrative.
Foreshadowing	"Would root these beauties as he roots the mead"	The violent imagery of the boar "rooting" or destroying beauty directly anticipates and hints at the tragic death of Adonis, who will later be gored by the boar. It builds dramatic tension and a sense of impending doom.
Apostrophe	Venus directly addresses Adonis about the boar.	Though not explicitly stated to be directed at Adonis within this excerpt, Venus's speech is part of her larger plea to him. It allows Venus to express her fears and warnings with directness and emotional intensity, making her concern palpable to the reader and highlighting her desperation to save him.

🎯 Overall Meaning & Significance in the Context of the Poem

This stanza (106) is a desperate plea from Venus to Adonis, urging him not to hunt the boar. Its core meaning lies in the stark contrast it draws between the overwhelming, divine power of Venus's beauty and the unthinking, brutal force of untamed nature, embodied by the boar. Venus argues that the boar is unique among creatures; it is immune to her charms, to which even Love itself pays homage. It will not be swayed by her "face of thine," "soft hands," "sweet lips," or "crystal eyne"—features whose "full perfection all the world amazes." Instead, if it catches Adonis "at vantage," it will "root these beauties as he roots the mead," a chilling premonition of his demise.

Significance in the Context of the Poem:

Beauty vs. Brutality/Nature: The stanza epitomizes a central conflict in Venus and Adonis: the clash between the refined, persuasive power of love and beauty (represented by Venus) and the untamed, destructive force of nature (represented by the boar). It highlights the vulnerability of even divine beauty to raw, unthinking violence, suggesting that not all things can be subdued by charm or passion.
Futility of Persuasion: Despite Venus being the goddess of love and beauty, her most potent tools—her allure and eloquence—are utterly ineffective against the boar. This foreshadows her ultimate failure to convince Adonis to abandon his hunt, emphasizing the tragic powerlessness of love in the face of destiny or stubborn will.
Foreshadowing of Tragedy: The graphic imagery of the boar "rooting" Venus's (and by extension, Adonis's) beauty serves as powerful foreshadowing. It grimly predicts Adonis's violent death by the boar's tusks, creating dramatic irony as Venus unwittingly describes the very end she desperately tries to prevent. It underscores the poem's tragic arc, where the object of love is destroyed by the force the lover warns against.
Adonis's Resistance and the Nature of Desire: While Venus uses her beauty to try and manipulate Adonis, this stanza subtly reflects on Adonis's own coldness. Just as the boar is immune to Venus's physical allure, Adonis is largely unresponsive to her passionate advances. The boar's lack of "esteem" for beauty can be seen as a mirrored reflection of Adonis's apathetic attitude towards Venus's love.
The Transience of Beauty: The stanza underscores the fragility and impermanence of physical perfection. Even the unparalleled beauty of Venus, capable of amazing "all the world" and commanding "tributary gazes" from Love itself, is depicted as something that can be easily and brutally destroyed by a common, unthinking force of nature. This speaks to a broader theme of mortality and the fleeting nature of earthly delights.