🌹 Stanza 134 - Literary Analysis

Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis

📖 Original Stanza

‘Love comforteth like sunshine after rain,
But Lust’s effect is tempest after sun;     
Love’s gentle spring doth always fresh remain,
Lust’s winter comes ere summer half be done.
Love surfeits not, Lust like a glutton dies;
Love is all truth, Lust full of forged lies.

🔍 Line-by-Line Analysis

Line 1: ‘Love comforteth like sunshine after rain,

• "comforteth": An archaic form of "comforts," meaning to bring solace, relief, or ease. Shakespeare chooses this word to emphasize the deep, soothing, and restorative power of love.
• "like sunshine after rain": A simile comparing the effect of love to the refreshing and uplifting feeling of sunshine breaking through after a period of rain. This suggests that love brings clarity, warmth, and renewal, dispelling gloom or difficulty.
• Meaning: True love provides solace and brings a feeling of relief and refreshment, much like sunshine emerging after a period of rain.

Line 2: But Lust’s effect is tempest after sun;

• "Lust’s effect": Refers to the consequence or outcome of actions driven by lust.
• "tempest after sun": A strong metaphor contrasting with the previous line. A "tempest" is a violent storm, and its occurrence "after sun" implies a sudden, destructive change from peace and calm to chaos and danger. Shakespeare uses this to highlight the volatile and damaging nature of lust.
• Meaning: In stark contrast, the consequence of lust is destructive and chaotic, like a sudden, violent storm disrupting a peaceful, sunny day.

Line 3: Love’s gentle spring doth always fresh remain,

• "Love’s gentle spring": A metaphor for love's inherent nature as something mild, nascent, and full of life, akin to the season of spring. "Gentle" emphasizes its tenderness and lack of harshness.
• "doth always fresh remain": Means that love perpetually retains its newness, vitality, and purity. It suggests an eternal youth and resilience, never fading or becoming stale.
• Meaning: True love retains its youthful essence and vitality forever, like a perpetual spring that never fades or loses its freshness.

Line 4: Lust’s winter comes ere summer half be done.

• "Lust’s winter": A contrasting metaphor, representing the barrenness, decay, and harshness associated with lust. Winter is a season of death, dormancy, and cold.
• "comes ere summer half be done": "Ere" means "before." This phrase emphasizes the fleeting and premature end of lust. Lust's brief period of warmth or pleasure (its "summer") quickly gives way to its cold, sterile end, implying that it is short-lived and ultimately unsatisfying.
• Meaning: Lust, however, quickly reaches its cold and desolate end, often before its fleeting moment of passion has even fully developed.

Line 5: Love surfeits not, Lust like a glutton dies;

• "surfeits not": "Surfeit" means to eat or drink to excess, causing sickness or disgust; to become oversatiated. "Surfeits not" means that love never becomes excessive, tiresome, or sickening. It implies an unending and healthy appetite or fulfillment.
• "Lust like a glutton dies": A powerful simile. A "glutton" is someone who habitually overeats. Just as a glutton might die from their own excessive consumption, lust is portrayed as self-destructive, consumed by its own insatiable and uncontrolled desires, leading to its ultimate demise.
• Meaning: True love never becomes excessive or tiresome; it remains fulfilling. Lust, on the other hand, self-destructs through its own insatiable excess, like someone who dies from overeating.

Line 6: Love is all truth, Lust full of forged lies.

• "Love is all truth": Emphasizes the inherent honesty, sincerity, and authenticity of genuine love. It is founded on reality and openness.
• "Lust full of forged lies": "Forged" means fabricated, counterfeit, or false. This phrase asserts that lust is fundamentally based on deception, pretense, and artificiality, rather than genuine emotion or honesty.
• Meaning: True love is characterized by honesty and sincerity, while lust is entirely based on deceit and fabricated pretenses.

🎭 Literary Devices

🎯 Overall Meaning & Significance in the Context of the Poem

This stanza serves as a pivotal didactic moment within Venus and Adonis, explicitly defining and contrasting the nature of true love with that of lust. Throughout the poem, Venus's relentless pursuit of Adonis is characterized by an overwhelming, almost predatory passion that Adonis repeatedly rejects. This stanza functions as a clear articulation of the moral and philosophical argument underlying Adonis's reluctance and, implicitly, the poem's tragic resolution.

The overall meaning is that true love is a positive, enduring, and honest force, bringing comfort and perpetual renewal, whereas lust is a destructive, transient, and deceitful impulse that leads to premature decay and self-destruction.

In the context of the poem, this stanza is highly significant because it crystallizes the central thematic conflict: * Venus embodies the "Lust" described here. Her desire for Adonis is presented as possessive, overwhelming, and ultimately unsatisfying for Adonis. Her passion is not comforting (it distresses him), it is tempestuous (her emotions are volatile), it quickly becomes tiresome to Adonis (he wishes it would end), and it is arguably based on physical attraction rather than deep truth. Her pursuit brings about her own sorrow when Adonis dies, akin to Lust's self-destruction. * Adonis, by contrast, rejects this "Lust." He favors a chaste life or, at most, a 'love' that is not driven by overpowering sexual desire. His reluctance highlights his understanding (or instinctual aversion) to the destructive qualities of lust that the stanza enumerates.

Thus, the stanza does not merely define terms; it provides a moral lens through which to interpret the characters' actions and the poem's outcome. It underscores the destructive potential of uncontrolled passion and elevates a more virtuous, enduring form of affection, aligning with the poem's broader exploration of nature, desire, and the consequences of moral choices.