🌹 Stanza 119 - Literary Analysis

Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis

📖 Original Stanza

‘Lie quietly, and hear a little more;
Nay, do not struggle, for thou shalt not rise:
To make thee hate the hunting of the boar,
Unlike myself thou hear’st me moralize,     
Applying this to that, and so to so;
For love can comment upon every woe.

🔍 Line-by-Line Analysis

Line 1: ‘Lie quietly, and hear a little more;

• "Lie quietly": Venus commands Adonis to remain still and passive. This emphasizes her assertive nature and his constrained position, suggesting she holds physical sway over him and intends to prolong their encounter.
• "hear a little more": She instructs him to continue listening to her discourse, indicating that her previous arguments or pleas are insufficient and she has more to say to convince him. It reinforces her determination to keep him captive to her words.
• Meaning: "Stay still, and continue to listen to me speak for a bit longer."

Line 2: Nay, do not struggle, for thou shalt not rise:

• "Nay, do not struggle": Venus directly addresses Adonis's potential or actual resistance. "Nay" is an emphatic refusal, and "do not struggle" highlights his attempts to escape her grasp or the situation. This reinforces her physical control and his trapped state.
• "for thou shalt not rise": A forceful, absolute declaration of her will. "Shalt not" signifies an undeniable prohibition, emphasizing her complete dominance and his inability to defy her command in this moment. She is asserting her power over his movement.
• Meaning: "No, do not try to move or escape, because I will not permit you to get up."

Line 3: To make thee hate the hunting of the boar,

• "To make thee hate": Venus clearly states her ultimate objective: to instill a strong aversion in Adonis. This reveals her manipulative intent, aiming to reshape his desires and priorities to align with hers. She wants not just compliance, but a fundamental change in his affections.
• "the hunting of the boar": This is the specific activity Venus wishes for Adonis to abandon. The boar, in the poem, symbolizes wildness, danger, and the masculine pursuit of violence, standing in stark contrast to Venus's realm of love and fertility. Her goal is to divert his passion from this destructive pursuit to her amorous one.
• Meaning: "My purpose is to cause you to despise the act of hunting boars."

Line 4: Unlike myself thou hear’st me moralize,

• "Unlike myself": Venus acknowledges that her current behavior—delivering a didactic lecture or sermon—is out of character for her. She is the goddess of love, beauty, and pleasure, typically associated with sensuality, not moral instruction. This admission adds a layer of ironic self-awareness and highlights her desperation to win Adonis over.
• "thou hear’st me moralize": Adonis is subjected to her "moralizing," meaning she is drawing moral lessons or implications, attempting to persuade him of the superiority of love over hunting through reasoned (from her perspective) argument.
• Meaning: "You are currently listening to me preach a moral lesson, which is not something I usually do."

Line 5: Applying this to that, and so to so;

• "Applying this to that": This phrase suggests Venus is drawing extensive comparisons and making broad connections between various ideas or situations. It implies a detailed, perhaps even rambling, chain of reasoning as she attempts to support her argument against hunting and for love.
• "and so to so": This continuation emphasizes the comprehensive and exhaustive nature of her "moralizing." It means "and from that to something else, and so on," signifying that she is covering a wide range of examples or arguments to drive home her point. The repetition underlines her thoroughness or persistence.
• Meaning: "I am drawing comparisons and making connections between various ideas and situations, continuing my extensive explanation."

Line 6: For love can comment upon every woe.

• "For love": This refers to the abstract concept of love, but also inherently to Venus herself as its embodiment. It presents love as a powerful, almost sentient force, capable of intellectual engagement. Shakespeare personifies love to elevate its perceived importance.
• "can comment upon": Love possesses the ability to interpret, explain, or provide insights into. "Comment upon" suggests a capacity for critical analysis and understanding, not just feeling. Shakespeare uses this to present love as a source of wisdom.
• "every woe": Every sorrow, misfortune, or distress. Venus asserts that love offers a comprehensive framework for understanding and perhaps even alleviating all human suffering. This grand claim is her ultimate justification for why Adonis should embrace love and abandon other pursuits, presenting it as a universal key to meaning.
• Meaning: "Because love has the capacity to explain and provide understanding for every kind of sorrow or misfortune."

🎭 Literary Devices

🎯 Overall Meaning & Significance in the Context of the Poem

This stanza marks a crucial turning point where Venus shifts from purely physical attempts at seduction to a more intellectual and rhetorical strategy to win Adonis. Having physically restrained him, she now seeks to control his mind and desires. Her explicit goal is to turn him against his beloved hunting, particularly the dangerous pursuit of the boar, in favor of her amorous advances.

The stanza highlights the central conflict of the poem: the clash between Love (represented by Venus, associated with fertility, life, and controlled passion) and Death/Nature (represented by Adonis's obsession with hunting, wildness, and potential for violent death). Venus attempts to intellectualize her argument, presenting love not just as physical pleasure but as a profound philosophical framework capable of explaining and alleviating all sorrow ("love can comment upon every woe"). This elevates her pursuit beyond mere lust, aiming to convince Adonis of love's universal significance and superiority over his dangerous pastime.

Furthermore, the stanza showcases the power dynamics and gender roles at play. Venus's assertive commands ("shalt not rise") and her willingness to step out of character ("Unlike myself thou hear’st me moralize") underscore her dominant and relentless pursuit of Adonis, subverting traditional expectations of passive female roles. Her extended argument also demonstrates the theme of persuasion and rhetoric as a tool of seduction and manipulation, as she tirelessly attempts to verbally reshape Adonis's worldview. Ultimately, this stanza deepens the poem's exploration of desire, control, and the contrasting forces of life and death.