🌹 Stanza 159 - Literary Analysis

Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis

📖 Original Stanza

‘Dost thou drink tears, that thou provok’st such weeping?
What may a heavy groan advantage thee?
Why hast thou cast into eternal sleeping
Those eyes that taught all other eyes to see?       
Now Nature cares not for thy mortal vigour
Since her best work is ruin’d with thy rigour.’

🔍 Line-by-Line Analysis

Line 1: "Dost thou drink tears, that thou provok’st such weeping?"

"Dost thou drink tears": This is a rhetorical question, personifying the destructive force (Death, or the cruel fate that took Adonis) as a being that feeds on or derives sustenance from the sorrow of others. It suggests a malevolent intent, as if suffering is deliberately caused for consumption.
"that thou provok’st such weeping?": "Provok'st" means to incite, cause, or bring about. "Such weeping" refers to Venus's overwhelming grief and the immense sorrow she experiences, implying the destructive force intentionally brought about this deep lamentation.
Meaning: "Do you consume tears, that you deliberately cause such profound sorrow and weeping?"

Line 2: "What may a heavy groan advantage thee?"

"heavy groan": Refers to the deep, pained sounds of grief and lamentation, indicating intense physical and emotional suffering.
"advantage thee": What benefit, gain, or profit do you (the destructive force) receive from causing or hearing such expressions of pain?
Meaning: "What benefit or gain do you derive from hearing a deeply painful groan?"

Line 3: "Why hast thou cast into eternal sleeping"

"hast thou cast": "Thou" refers to the destructive entity (Death, or the agent of Adonis's demise). "Hast thou cast" means 'why have you thrown, condemned, or consigned'.
"eternal sleeping": This is a euphemism for death, emphasizing its permanence and the peaceful, albeit final, cessation of life. Shakespeare uses this gentle term to contrast with the harshness of the act.
Meaning: "Why have you condemned to eternal death..."

Line 4: "Those eyes that taught all other eyes to see?"

"Those eyes that taught all other eyes to see?": This is a hyperbolic description of Adonis's unparalleled beauty, specifically his eyes. It suggests that his eyes were so perfectly beautiful and captivating that they set the standard for beauty, serving as a model or source of aesthetic understanding for everyone else. It emphasizes the irreplaceable loss.
Meaning: "...those eyes so perfectly beautiful that they served as a standard for all others to perceive beauty?"

Line 5: "Now Nature cares not for thy mortal vigour"

"Nature": Personified as the creative force of the universe, the entity responsible for life and beauty.
"cares not for": Is indifferent to, no longer values, or has no regard for.
"thy mortal vigour": "Thy" refers to the destructive force (Death). "Mortal vigour" here signifies the power or strength of this destructive entity that brings about mortality and ends life. Nature is depicted as having lost respect for Death's power, because its greatest creation is ruined.
Meaning: "Now Nature no longer respects or cares for your power to inflict death and mortality,"

Line 6: "Since her best work is ruin’d with thy rigour.’"

"her best work": Refers to Adonis, whom Venus (and by extension, the poem) presents as Nature's most perfect and beautiful creation, the epitome of youthful vitality.
"ruin’d with thy rigour": Destroyed or brought to an end by your (Death's) harshness, severity, or cruelty. "Rigour" implies an unyielding and unforgiving quality.
Meaning: "since her most exquisite creation has been utterly destroyed by your cruel and unyielding harshness."

🎭 Literary Devices

Device	Example	Effect
Personification	"Dost thou drink tears," "What may a heavy groan advantage thee?", "Now Nature cares not for thy mortal vigour"	Attributes human actions (drinking, caring, having vigour) and emotions (indifference) to abstract concepts like Death and Nature, making them active agents in the tragedy.
Rhetorical Question	"Dost thou drink tears...?", "What may a heavy groan advantage thee?", "Why hast thou cast..."	Venus asks questions not for answers but to express her intense grief, outrage, and accusation towards the force that took Adonis, highlighting her despair and the apparent senselessness of the loss.
Euphemism	"eternal sleeping"	Softens the harsh reality of death, making it sound more peaceful or permanent rest, while still conveying the finality of Adonis's demise.
Hyperbole	"Those eyes that taught all other eyes to see?"	Exaggerates Adonis's beauty to an extraordinary degree, emphasizing his unparalleled perfection and thus the immense, irreplaceable loss caused by his death.
Apostrophe	Direct address to "thou" (Death/the destructive force)	Venus speaks directly to an abstract concept or absent entity, intensifying the emotional outpouring and making her lament more dramatic and personal.
Alliteration	"heavy groan," "mortal vigour," "ruin'd...rigour"	Creates a subtle musicality and reinforces the connection between the words, drawing attention to the concepts of suffering, strength, and destructive force.

🎯 Overall Meaning & Significance in the Context of the Poem

Stanza 159 is a poignant lament delivered by Venus immediately after discovering Adonis's death. It marks a dramatic shift in the poem's tone from the pursuit of love to the agony of loss. The stanza's primary meaning is Venus's desperate outcry against the cruelty and perceived senselessness of death. She personifies Death as a malevolent entity that feeds on sorrow, questioning its motives and the benefit it derives from such destruction. This reflects a profound sense of injustice and powerlessness in the face of mortality.

In the broader context of Venus and Adonis, this stanza is highly significant:

Triumph of Death over Beauty: It powerfully encapsulates one of the poem's central themes: the tragic vulnerability of beauty and life in the face of death. Adonis, the epitome of youthful beauty and Nature's "best work," is utterly destroyed, highlighting the ultimate futility of even divine love or perfection against the forces of mortality.
Nature's Sympathy: By claiming "Nature cares not for thy mortal vigour / Since her best work is ruin’d with thy rigour," Venus positions Adonis's death not just as a personal tragedy but as a cosmic one. She suggests that Nature itself is wounded and disrespected by the destruction of its most perfect creation. This sets the stage for the subsequent metamorphosis of Adonis's blood into the anemone flower, symbolizing Nature's grief and its attempt to preserve a fragment of his beauty, albeit in a fragile, ephemeral form.
The Cruelty of the World: The stanza portrays death not as a natural process but as a ruthless, destructive force ("rigour") that preys on beauty. This reinforces the darker undertones present throughout the poem regarding the dangers and destructive potential inherent in the physical world, contrasting with Venus's initial idealistic view of love and beauty.
The Power of Grief: Venus's intense rhetorical questions and accusations demonstrate the overwhelming, irrational nature of grief. Her inability to comprehend or accept Adonis's death drives her to confront and condemn the very force of mortality.