🌹 Stanza 111 - Literary Analysis

Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis

📖 Original Stanza

‘And more than so, presenteth to mine eye
The picture of an angry-chafing boar,
Under whose sharp fangs on his back doth lie
An image like thyself, all stain’d with gore;       
Whose blood upon the fresh flowers being shed
Doth make them droop with grief and hang the head.

🔍 Line-by-Line Analysis

Line 1: ‘And more than so, presenteth to mine eye

"more than so": This phrase means "beyond that" or "furthermore." It indicates that the speaker (Adonis, recounting his dream) is adding another detail or consequence to what he has just described or felt.
"presenteth to mine eye": This means "appears before my sight" or "is revealed to me." "Presenteth" is an archaic form of "presents," and "mine eye" is a poetic or archaic way of saying "my eye," chosen for its rhythm and elevated tone.
Meaning: "And beyond that, I see before my eyes"

Line 2: The picture of an angry-chafing boar,

"picture": Here, "picture" refers not to a physical painting, but to a vivid mental image, a vision, or a premonition within a dream. Shakespeare uses it to convey the clarity and intensity of Adonis's internal experience.
"angry-chafing boar": This describes a boar that is not only enraged but also agitatedly rubbing or scraping itself, perhaps against something, showing its furious and restless nature. "Chafing" implies irritation, agitation, and a readiness for violence, suggesting the boar's formidable and destructive power. Shakespeare chooses this vivid descriptor to emphasize the boar's menacing quality.
Meaning: "The clear image of a furiously agitated and dangerous boar,"

Line 3: Under whose sharp fangs on his back doth lie

"Under whose sharp fangs": This indicates "beneath the boar's keen, pointed tusks." "Fangs" is used to highlight the boar's lethal tusks, emphasizing their piercing and destructive capability.
"on his back doth lie": This means "lies on its back" or "is lying supine." "Doth lie" is an archaic verb form (do + verb) common in Shakespeare's time. Lying on the back suggests helplessness, vulnerability, and typically, death or severe injury.
Meaning: "And beneath its sharp tusks, lying on his back,"

Line 4: An image like thyself, all stain’d with gore;

"An image like thyself": This is the crucial, chilling reveal: the figure lying dead or wounded resembles Adonis himself. "Image" reinforces that this is a symbolic or visionary representation rather than a literal viewing of Adonis's body, serving as a direct premonition.
"all stain’d with gore": This means "completely covered or drenched in blood." "Gore" specifically refers to thick, clotted, or spilt blood from a wound, emphasizing the horrific and violent nature of the injury and death. Shakespeare uses "gore" to evoke revulsion and the brutality of the scene.
Meaning: "There lies a figure resembling yourself, completely covered in blood;"

Line 5: Whose blood upon the fresh flowers being shed

"Whose blood": This refers to the blood of the figure "like thyself" (Adonis).
"upon the fresh flowers being shed": This describes the blood flowing onto and defiling newly bloomed, vibrant flowers. "Shed" implies a significant quantity of blood spilt. The contrast between the fresh, beautiful flowers and the spilled blood heightens the tragic irony and highlights the destruction of beauty and life.
Meaning: "And whose blood, spilt upon the vibrant, fresh flowers,"

Line 6: Doth make them droop with grief and hang the head.

"Doth make them droop with grief": This means "causes the flowers to wilt and sag as if in sorrow." "Droop" suggests a loss of vitality and life. The attribution of "grief" to inanimate flowers is personification, portraying nature itself as mourning.
"and hang the head": This is a common human gesture of sadness, shame, or defeat. Applied to the flowers, it reinforces the personification, implying that nature is visibly expressing sorrow and mourning Adonis's impending death.
Meaning: "Causes them to wilt with sorrow and hang their heads as if in mourning."

🎭 Literary Devices

Device	Example	Effect
Imagery	"angry-chafing boar," "sharp fangs," "stain’d with gore," "fresh flowers," "droop with grief"	Creates a vivid and disturbing mental picture, emphasizing the violence and horror of the premonition. The contrast between the vibrant "fresh flowers" and the defiling "gore" intensifies the tragic mood and the sense of beauty corrupted.
Foreshadowing	"An image like thyself, all stain’d with gore"	Builds suspense and dread, directly predicting Adonis's tragic death by the boar. It validates Venus's earlier warnings and heightens the dramatic irony as Adonis dismisses the vision.
Personification	"Doth make them droop with grief and hang the head" (applied to flowers)	Attributes human emotions (grief) and actions (drooping, hanging the head) to the flowers, emphasizing the profound and unnatural nature of Adonis's impending death. It suggests that even nature mourns his demise, amplifying the pathos and highlighting the universal impact of such a loss.
Symbolism	Boar: destructive passion, death; Flowers: beauty, life, innocence, transience; Gore: violent death	The boar symbolizes wild, untamed, and ultimately destructive desire or fate. The flowers symbolize the fragile beauty and innocence that will be tragically cut short. The gore signifies the brutal, irreversible end. These symbols enrich the thematic layers, connecting the specific event to broader philosophical ideas.
Pathetic Fallacy	"Doth make them droop with grief and hang the head"	Closely related to personification, this device projects human feelings onto nature. It heightens the emotional impact by showing the natural world reacting to and mourning the tragedy, thereby emphasizing the magnitude of the sorrow and the unnaturalness of Adonis's death.
Alliteration	"sharp fangs," "fresh flowers"	The repetition of initial consonant sounds adds a subtle musicality and emphasis to these phrases. It makes them more memorable and helps to reinforce the vividness of the imagery associated with the boar's lethality and the pristine nature that will be defiled.

🎯 Overall Meaning & Significance in the Context of the Poem

This stanza is a pivotal moment in Venus and Adonis, serving as Adonis's explicit and graphic premonition of his own violent death. Within a dream, he sees a clear vision of an enraged boar, beneath whose tusks lies a figure identical to himself, covered in blood. The tragic imagery is further amplified by the detail of his blood staining fresh flowers, causing them to wilt and mourn, signifying nature's sorrow.

The stanza's significance lies in several key aspects:

Confirmation of Prophecy: It validates Venus's intuitive fears and repeated warnings against hunting the boar, although Adonis remains stubbornly unconvinced by her and even his own vision.
Heightened Dramatic Irony: The audience now possesses undeniable knowledge of Adonis's fate, creating intense dramatic irony as he continues to dismiss the danger and pursue the hunt. This underscores the tragic inevitability of his demise.
Thematic Reinforcement: It reinforces the poem's central themes:
- Destructive Passion: The boar symbolizes wild, untamed desire and the destructive consequences of pursuing it (in Adonis's case, the pursuit of the hunt, and by extension, the rejection of Venus's "natural" love for an "unnatural" pursuit).
- Fragility of Beauty and Life: Adonis's beautiful form is shown defiled by gore, emphasizing the transient and vulnerable nature of youth and beauty in the face of inevitable death.
- Nature's Grief: The personification of flowers mourning signifies that Adonis's death is not just a personal tragedy but an unnatural disruption that even the natural world laments, highlighting his exceptional beauty and the profound loss he represents.
Foreboding and Suspense: The graphic nature of the premonition creates a strong sense of foreboding and suspense, driving the narrative towards its tragic conclusion and making the subsequent events even more poignant.

Ultimately, this stanza solidifies the tragic trajectory of the poem, setting the stage for Adonis's unavoidable death and emphasizing the stark contrast between Venus's life-affirming love and Adonis's destructive pursuit of the hunt.