🌹 Stanza 139 - Literary Analysis

Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis

📖 Original Stanza

And now she beats her heart, whereat it groans,
That all the neighbour caves, as seeming troubled,
Make verbal repetition of her moans;
Passion on passion deeply is redoubled:     
‘Ay me!’ she cries, and twenty times, ‘Woe, woe!’
And twenty echoes twenty times cry so.

🔍 Line-by-Line Analysis

Line 1: "And now she beats her heart, whereat it groans,"

"And now she beats her heart": This phrase vividly describes Venus's physical reaction to her intense emotional distress. It signifies self-inflicted pain, a common manifestation of extreme grief or despair, demonstrating the depth of her agony. Shakespeare uses this physical action to convey profound inner turmoil.
"whereat it groans": This is an instance of personification, giving her heart the ability to make a sound of pain. It implies that her suffering is so immense that it emanates from the very core of her being, emphasizing the unbearable nature of her emotional burden.
Meaning: "And at this moment, she strikes her chest in anguish, causing her heart to seemingly cry out in pain."

Line 2: "That all the neighbour caves, as seeming troubled,"

"That all the neighbour caves": Refers to the surrounding natural environment, specifically the hollow recesses in the nearby landscape. It broadens the scope of Venus's grief beyond herself, suggesting its impact on her surroundings.
"as seeming troubled": This is an example of pathetic fallacy and personification. The caves are depicted as if they are affected by or share in her sorrow, reflecting her inner turmoil back to her. Shakespeare chooses this to convey the idea that her grief is so immense it resonates with and disturbs the natural world itself.
Meaning: "So intensely that all the nearby caves, appearing to be distressed along with her,"

Line 3: "Make verbal repetition of her moans;"

"Make verbal repetition": The caves are described as making sounds that mimic or repeat human utterances. "Verbal" here refers to sounds that are like words or cries, not necessarily spoken language.
"of her moans": Her expressions of deep sorrow and anguish. The phrase signifies that her cries are being echoed and amplified by the landscape, underscoring the widespread and echoing nature of her profound grief.
Meaning: "Repeatedly echo her cries of anguish."

Line 4: "Passion on passion deeply is redoubled:"

"Passion on passion": This refers to an accumulation of intense emotions, specifically her grief, fear, and despair. One powerful feeling is layered directly upon another, indicating an overwhelming and escalating surge of emotion. "Passion" in Shakespeare often means any strong emotion, not exclusively love.
"deeply is redoubled": Her already profound and intense emotions are not just doubled but "redoubled," meaning amplified or multiplied exponentially. This emphasizes the extreme, escalating, and almost unbearable nature of her suffering.
Meaning: "One intense emotion is profoundly layered upon another, causing her suffering to multiply and intensify."

Line 5: "‘Ay me!’ she cries, and twenty times, ‘Woe, woe!’"

"‘Ay me!’ she cries": "Ay me" is an archaic interjection expressing sorrow, distress, or resignation, similar to "Alas!" It's a quintessential cry of lamentation, immediately conveying her misery.
"and twenty times, ‘Woe, woe!’": This is an instance of hyperbole. "Twenty times" indicates countless, incessant repetitions, emphasizing the desperate and unending nature of her cries. "Woe, woe!" is a direct, guttural expression of deep sorrow, despair, and misfortune.
Meaning: "She cries out in lament, 'Alas for me!' and incessantly repeats, 'Misery! Misery!'"

Line 6: "And twenty echoes twenty times cry so."

"And twenty echoes": This directly refers back to the "neighbour caves" mentioned earlier. The number "twenty" parallels her own "twenty times," creating a strong link between her grief and the sympathetic response of nature.
"twenty times cry so": The echoes from the caves repeat her cries with the same frequency and intensity. This reinforces the idea that her sorrow is so immense and pervasive that it resonates throughout her surroundings, mirrored by the natural world. "Cry so" means they cry in the same way she does.
Meaning: "And twenty echoes from the caves repeat her lamentations twenty times over."

🎭 Literary Devices

Device	Example	Effect
Personification	"it groans" (heart), "caves, as seeming troubled", "Make verbal repetition" (caves), "echoes... cry so"	Gives human qualities to inanimate objects or concepts, amplifying the emotional impact by suggesting that even nature is affected by Venus's profound grief, making her sorrow seem universal and overwhelming.
Hyperbole	"twenty times", "twenty echoes"	Exaggerates the frequency and intensity of Venus's cries and their echoes. This emphasizes the boundless, almost theatrical, and overwhelming nature of her despair.
Repetition	"twenty times" (lines 5 & 6), "Woe, woe!"	Reinforces the depth and persistence of Venus's grief. The repeated numerical parallelism between her cries and the echoes highlights the mirroring effect and the all-encompassing nature of her sorrow.
Onomatopoeia	"groans", "moans"	Words whose sound imitates the sound of the action or thing they describe. This adds a visceral, auditory dimension to Venus's suffering, making her pain more palpable to the reader.
Parallelism	"'Ay me!' she cries, and twenty times, 'Woe, woe!' / And twenty echoes twenty times cry so."	The similar grammatical structure and numerical repetition between Venus's cries and the echoes create a strong sense of mirroring, reinforcing the idea that her intense grief is reflected by the sympathetic natural world.
Pathetic Fallacy	"neighbour caves, as seeming troubled"	Attributes human emotions or responses to inanimate nature. This device heightens the dramatic impact of Venus's grief by portraying nature as actively sympathizing with or reflecting her emotional state.

🎯 Overall Meaning & Significance in the Context of the Poem

Stanza 139 vividly portrays Venus's descent into profound and overwhelming grief, marking a critical turning point in Venus and Adonis. Having pursued Adonis with intense, almost aggressive, passion throughout the poem, her discovery or premonition of his death transforms her love into an equally intense, destructive sorrow.

The stanza emphasizes the sheer magnitude of her despair through a combination of physical action (beating her heart), desperate exclamations ("Ay me!", "Woe, woe!"), and the dramatic response of nature. The personification of the caves and echoes, seemingly troubled and repeating her cries, elevates her personal tragedy to a cosmic event, suggesting that her sorrow is so immense it resonates throughout the entire landscape. This aligns with the classical tradition of pathetic fallacy, where nature reflects human emotion, underscoring the mythical scale of the events.

The use of hyperbole ("twenty times," "redoubled") highlights the boundless and almost unbearable nature of her suffering, showing how her "passion on passion" spirals into an uncontrollable outburst. This marks the culmination of her unrequited love and foreshadows the tragic ending. The stanza's intense emotional display is significant as it demonstrates the destructive power of unchecked passion and love when confronted with loss. It moves the poem from themes of youthful desire and pursuit to those of mourning, the fragility of life, and the enduring pain of separation, establishing the poem's elegiac tone that follows. This shift from physical pursuit to profound lamentation is central to understanding the poem's exploration of love's dual nature – its capacity for joy and its inevitable connection to sorrow.