Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis
She marking them, begins a wailing note,
And sings extemporally a woeful ditty;
How love makes young men thrall and old men dote;
How love is wise in folly foolish-witty:
Her heavy anthem still concludes in woe,
And still the choir of echoes answer so.
| Device | Example | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Paradox | "wise in folly" (Line 4) | Highlights the contradictory and often self-defeating nature of love, where seemingly intelligent actions lead to irrational or painful outcomes. |
| Oxymoron | "foolish-witty" (Line 4) | Emphasizes the perplexing dual nature of love, which possesses a deceptive cleverness that ultimately leads to folly, deepening the sense of love's irrationality. |
| Personification | "choir of echoes answer so" (Line 6) | Gives the natural world a voice that actively participates in and affirms Venus's lament, magnifying her grief and suggesting its universal resonance or inevitability. |
| Alliteration | "woeful ditty" (Line 2) | Creates a mournful sound effect that reinforces the sadness of Venus's song. |
| Alliteration | "wise in folly foolish-witty" (Line 4) | Adds a sonic intensity that draws attention to the complex and contradictory nature of love being described, making the paradox more striking and memorable. |
| Repetition | "How love makes... How love is..." (Lines 3-4) | Creates a rhetorical structure that emphasizes Venus's analytical breakdown of love's detrimental effects, giving her lament a declarative, almost universal truth-telling quality. |
| Anaphora | "How love makes... How love is..." (Lines 3-4) | The repetition of "How love" at the beginning of successive clauses creates a litany of complaints, intensifying the focus on love's negative attributes and building the emotional impact of Venus's lament. |
| Metaphor | "heavy anthem" (Line 5) | Compares Venus's lament to a solemn, weighty, and significant song of sorrow, elevating her spontaneous outburst into a profound and enduring statement about the pain of love. |
| Juxtaposition | "young men thrall and old men dote" (Line 3) | Contrasts the different ways love affects various age groups, showing its pervasive and varied, yet consistently negative, influence across the spectrum of human life. |
This stanza marks a pivotal moment in Venus and Adonis, signaling Venus's shift from active pursuit and passionate desire to profound lament and bitter reflection. After the devastating discovery of Adonis's death, Venus's overwhelming grief transforms into a spontaneously uttered "woeful ditty"—a sorrowful song that articulates her newly solidified, cynical view of love.
The core meaning of the stanza lies in Venus's realization (or re-affirmation) that love, despite its allure, is fundamentally destructive and leads to "woe." She portrays love not as a joyous union, but as a manipulative force that "makes young men thrall" (enslaves them) and "old men dote" (makes them foolishly obsessed). This highlights love's power to strip individuals of their agency and dignity, reducing them to its captives or infatuated victims.
The paradoxical description of love as "wise in folly foolish-witty" is crucial. It suggests that love operates with a cunning, almost intelligent, deception, yet its ultimate ends are irrational, absurd, and heartbreaking. This reflects Venus's own recent experience: her passionate, "wise" pursuit of Adonis led directly to his "foolish" and tragic death. The stanza effectively argues that love's cleverness is a treacherous quality, leading to ruin rather than happiness.
The "heavy anthem" that "still concludes in woe" underscores the inevitable tragic outcome that Venus now associates with love. The personified "choir of echoes" that "answer so" further universalizes this lament. The echoes' affirmation suggests that her sorrow is not unique but a fundamental truth about love, one that is echoed throughout nature and time.
In the broader context of the poem, this stanza serves as a dark summation of the poem's narrative arc. The initial vibrant, almost comical, depiction of Venus's unbridled desire and pursuit now culminates in a deep understanding of passion's destructive potential. It moves the poem beyond the immediate tragedy of Adonis's death to a more philosophical, albeit despairing, statement about the nature of love itself. This lament sets the stage for Venus's subsequent actions, particularly her curse on love, which profoundly alters its nature in the world, forever mingling it with sorrow and jealousy. The stanza thus functions as a powerful turning point, transforming Venus from a desirous goddess into a grieving prophetess of love's inherent pain.