🌹 Stanza 141 - Literary Analysis

Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis

📖 Original Stanza

Her song was tedious, and outwore the night,
For lovers’ hours are long, though seeming short:
If pleas’d themselves, others, they think, delight
In such like circumstance, with such like sport:    
Their copious stories, oftentimes begun,
End without audience, and are never done.

🔍 Line-by-Line Analysis

Line 1: "Her song was tedious, and outwore the night,"

• "Her song": Refers not to a literal melody but to Venus's extended, fervent pleas, arguments, and efforts to persuade Adonis, which have continued throughout the night.
• "tedious": Meaning tiresome, boring, or excessively long. This is the narrator's objective judgment, reflecting the likely impact of Venus's relentless pursuit on Adonis. Shakespeare chose this word to immediately convey the ineffectiveness and wearisome nature of Venus's approach from an outside perspective.
• "outwore the night": This implies that Venus's discourse lasted the entire night, until dawn, effectively "wearing out" or exhausting the hours of darkness. It emphasizes the extraordinary duration and persistence of her efforts.
• Meaning: Venus's persistent pleas and attempts to woo Adonis were tiresome and continued throughout the entire night until morning.

Line 2: "For lovers’ hours are long, though seeming short:"

• "lovers’ hours are long": This refers to the perspective of anyone other than the lover themselves—either the object of their affection (Adonis) or an observer. To them, the time spent enduring a lover's impassioned discourse can feel interminable.
• "though seeming short": This provides the contrasting perspective of the lover (Venus). To them, deeply absorbed in their passion and pursuit, the time spent with or pursuing their beloved feels fleeting and insufficient. This paradox highlights the subjective nature of time when consumed by desire.
• Meaning: This is because, from an outside perspective, the time spent listening to lovers' impassioned pleas feels long, even though, to the lovers themselves, that same time feels brief.

Line 3: "If pleas’d themselves, others, they think, delight"

• "If pleas’d themselves": This means if the lovers themselves find pleasure, satisfaction, or gratification in their own actions, words, or the expression of their passion.
• "others, they think, delight": Lovers, being self-absorbed in their ardor, mistakenly assume that everyone else (especially the object of their affection or their audience) will also find pleasure, charm, or enjoyment in their passionate display. Shakespeare uses this to highlight the common delusion of passionate individuals.
• Meaning: If lovers are pleased with their own actions or expressions of passion, they mistakenly believe that other people will also find delight in them.

Line 4: "In such like circumstance, with such like sport:"

• "In such like circumstance": Refers to similar situations or conditions as their own, specifically the context of passionate pursuit or amorous interaction.
• "with such like sport": "Sport" here refers to amorous play, dalliance, or the specific kind of amorous activities or expressions that the lover enjoys. The repetition of "such like" emphasizes the self-referential and often repetitive nature of the lover's expectations.
• Meaning: ...in similar situations and with the same kind of amorous activities or playful encounters that bring them pleasure.

Line 5: "Their copious stories, oftentimes begun,"

• "copious stories": Means abundant, verbose, and lengthy narratives. This refers to the lovers' detailed, often repetitive, and perhaps self-indulgent accounts, pleas, or arguments, much like Venus's long speeches to Adonis. Shakespeare chose "copious" to emphasize the overwhelming quantity and lack of conciseness.
• "oftentimes begun": This highlights the repetitive nature of these narratives. Lovers may frequently restart their arguments or pleas, perhaps picking up where they left off or reiterating points in a desperate attempt to persuade.
• Meaning: Their long and wordy narratives, which are often begun repeatedly...

Line 6: "End without audience, and are never done."

• "End without audience": This signifies that the lovers' extensive narratives or attempts at persuasion fail to capture or retain the attention of their intended listener (Adonis, in Venus's case), or they are simply ignored. It implies a lack of receptivity.
• "are never done": This is a powerful double meaning. Firstly, the "stories" are never brought to a successful conclusion or achieve their intended effect because they fail to gain an audience or achieve their goal. Secondly, the lover themselves is "never done" trying; they perpetually restart or continue their efforts, making the process endless and futile.
• Meaning: ...often conclude without anyone truly listening, and yet, paradoxically, they are never truly finished, as the lover continues their fruitless efforts.

🎭 Literary Devices

🎯 Overall Meaning & Significance in the Context of the Poem

This stanza serves as a crucial narratorial interjection, shifting from the direct action of Venus attempting to woo Adonis to a more generalized, somewhat cynical commentary on the nature of passionate lovers. Its primary meaning underscores the futility of unreciprocated passion and the self-absorption inherent in obsessive desire.

The narrator judges Venus's efforts as "tedious" and describes how lovers, like her, often fail to recognize that their fervent displays are unwelcome or boring to others. They mistakenly assume that their own pleasure in expressing love translates into delight for the listener, leading to "copious stories" that are "never done" but also "end without audience." This highlights the tragic irony of Venus's situation: her overwhelming passion leads her to repel, rather than attract, Adonis.

In the broader context of Venus and Adonis, this stanza reinforces the poem's central themes: * The Power Dynamics of Desire: It portrays Venus's love as an aggressive, overwhelming force that is ultimately ineffective against Adonis's steadfast disinterest. It emphasizes the imbalance where the pursuer's passion is burdensome to the pursued. * The Nature of Love (or Lust): The poem, through the narrator's lens here, distinguishes between self-serving desire (Venus's lust) and genuine, perhaps more innocent, affection (or lack thereof, in Adonis's case). Venus's "song" is not beautiful or alluring, but "tedious," suggesting her love is more about her own gratification than Adonis's reciprocal pleasure. * Foreshadowing: The stanza foreshadows the ultimate failure of Venus's suit. If her efforts are already deemed "tedious" and ineffective, it sets the stage for Adonis's continued rejection and eventual tragic departure. * Narratorial Voice: This moment allows the narrator to step back and offer a detached, often critical, observation on human behavior, lending a layer of philosophical commentary to the mythological narrative. It helps frame the poem as not just a story, but an exploration of the destructive aspects of desire.