🌹 Stanza 143 - Literary Analysis

Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis

📖 Original Stanza

Lo! here the gentle lark, weary of rest,
From his moist cabinet mounts up on high,
And wakes the morning, from whose silver breast
The sun ariseth in his majesty;    
Who doth the world so gloriously behold,
That cedar-tops and hills seem burnish’d gold.

🔍 Line-by-Line Analysis

Line 1: "Lo! here the gentle lark, weary of rest,"

• "Lo!": An archaic interjection meaning "look!" or "behold!". Shakespeare uses it to immediately draw the reader's attention to the natural scene unfolding, creating a sense of wonder and immediacy.
• "gentle lark": Refers to the skylark, a bird renowned for its melodious song and habit of soaring high. "Gentle" implies its peaceful, perhaps even innocent, nature, fitting for the serene dawn setting.
• "weary of rest": This personifies the lark, suggesting it has completed its period of sleep and is now energetically ready to begin its day. It conveys a natural eagerness to embrace the morning.
• Meaning: "Look! Here is the mild lark, having finished its rest (sleep),"

Line 2: "From his moist cabinet mounts up on high,"

• "moist cabinet": A metaphorical phrase referring to the lark's nest or its sleeping spot on the dewy ground. "Moist" evokes the dampness of pre-dawn, while "cabinet" suggests a small, private, enclosed space, giving the bird's dwelling a sense of intimate refuge. Shakespeare chose "cabinet" to convey a sense of privacy and perhaps a slight elevation, like a small chamber.
• "mounts up on high": Describes the lark's characteristic behavior of ascending rapidly and vertically into the sky, often singing as it climbs. This action is symbolic of the start of a new day.
• Meaning: "From its dewy resting place, it ascends high into the sky,"

Line 3: "And wakes the morning, from whose silver breast"

• "wakes the morning": This is personification, attributing the action of waking to the lark. The lark's song and flight are so intrinsically linked to the arrival of dawn that it seems to be the agent that rouses the morning itself, implying its vital role in the natural cycle.
• "silver breast": A metaphor for the pale, luminous quality of the pre-dawn or early morning sky before the sun's full intensity. "Silver" evokes a sense of cool beauty, purity, and soft light, suggesting the dawn is a nurturing entity from which the sun emerges.
• Meaning: "And its presence seems to awaken the morning, from whose pale, luminous (silver) dawn,"

Line 4: "The sun ariseth in his majesty;"

• "arise": To emerge or come into view, specifically referring to the ascent of the sun above the horizon.
• "in his majesty": This personifies the sun as a powerful, dignified ruler or king. It emphasizes the sun's grand, imposing, and glorious appearance as it begins to illuminate the world, bringing light and warmth.
• Meaning: "The sun rises with great power and dignity;"

Line 5: "Who doth the world so gloriously behold,"

• "Who": Refers back to "The sun" from the previous line, maintaining the personification.
• "doth the world so gloriously behold": This phrase emphasizes the active and splendid way the sun shines upon and illuminates the entire world. "Gloriously" highlights the magnificent and radiant effect of the sunlight, suggesting it beautifies everything it touches.
• Meaning: "Which (the sun) shines upon the world with such splendid brilliance,"

Line 6: "That cedar-tops and hills seem burnish'd gold."

• "cedar-tops and hills": Specific, elevated natural elements chosen to illustrate how widely and effectively the sun's light spreads. Cedar trees are tall, and hills rise high, making them prominent features to catch the first rays.
• "burnish'd gold": A vivid metaphor. "Burnished" means polished to a high sheen, typically used for metal. Here, the sunlight is so intense and golden that it transforms the landscape, making the peaks and treetops appear as lustrous and precious as polished gold. This choice emphasizes the richness, warmth, and unparalleled beauty of the scene.
• Meaning: "So that the tops of the cedar trees and the hills appear to be polished gold."

🎭 Literary Devices

🎯 Overall Meaning & Significance in the Context of the Poem

Stanza 143 presents a serene and majestic depiction of dawn, a moment of natural awakening and beauty. It opens with the humble lark, "weary of rest," rising to "wake the morning," personifying the bird as an agent of dawn. This gentle beginning quickly escalates with the grand entrance of the sun, personified as a king ascending "in his majesty," illuminating the world so powerfully that "cedar-tops and hills seem burnish'd gold." The stanza is a celebration of nature's cyclical beauty, order, and inherent glory.

In the broader context of Venus and Adonis, this stanza serves as a vivid pastoral interlude, a moment of sublime natural harmony that stands in stark contrast to the human drama unfolding. The poem is largely consumed by Venus's passionate, unrequited pursuit of Adonis, a narrative driven by intense desire, frustration, and ultimately, tragic loss. The unforced, orderly "arising" of the sun and the eager awakening of the lark offer a counterpoint to the turbulent and often chaotic human emotions. The natural world here is depicted as glorious and self-sufficient, highlighting themes of beauty inherent in nature, a beauty that is timeless and pure, unlike the often fleeting and corrupting nature of human passion and desire explored elsewhere in the poem. This beautiful dawn scene momentarily pauses the narrative's tension, perhaps to underscore the inherent indifference of the natural world to human suffering, or to provide a momentary glimpse of an ideal, harmonious existence that the human characters struggle to achieve. It emphasizes that while human lives are full of longing and sorrow, the natural world continues its majestic, beautiful, and ordered cycles.