🌹 Stanza 160 - Literary Analysis

Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis

📖 Original Stanza

Here overcome, as one full of despair,
She vail’d her eyelids, who, like sluices, stopp’d  
The crystal tide that from her two cheeks fair
In the sweet channel of her bosom dropp’d
But through the flood-gates breaks the silver rain,
And with his strong course opens them again.

🔍 Line-by-Line Analysis

Line 1: "Here overcome, as one full of despair,"

"Here overcome": At this moment, Venus is completely overwhelmed and defeated, specifically by Adonis's steadfast rejection. "Overcome" implies a powerful external force or emotion that has defeated her will.
"as one full of despair": This simile emphasizes the profound depth of her emotional state, likening her to someone completely consumed by hopelessness and sorrow. It underscores the intensity of her reaction to Adonis's refusal.
Meaning: At this point, completely overwhelmed, like someone utterly consumed by hopelessness.

Line 2: "She vail’d her eyelids, who, like sluices, stopp’d"

"She vail’d her eyelids": "Vail'd" means to lower or cast down. So, she lowered her eyelids, likely in an attempt to hide her emotions or to momentarily stem the flow of tears.
"who, like sluices, stopp’d": The "who" refers to the eyelids. A "sluice" is a gate that controls the flow of water in a channel. This simile vividly compares her eyelids to such gates, momentarily holding back the tears like water behind a dam. Shakespeare uses this to introduce the extended water metaphor for tears.
Meaning: She lowered her eyelids, which, like gates controlling a flow of water, briefly held back the tears.

Line 3: "The crystal tide that from her two cheeks fair"

"The crystal tide": This is a metaphor for her tears. "Crystal" emphasizes their clarity and purity, while "tide" suggests a large, flowing, and potentially overwhelming volume of water, continuing the water imagery from the previous line.
"that from her two cheeks fair": Indicates the origin of the tears, flowing down her beautiful face. The mention of "fair" cheeks reminds the reader of her divine beauty, creating a poignant contrast with her current state of distress.
Meaning: The clear, abundant tears that flowed down from her beautiful cheeks.

Line 4: "In the sweet channel of her bosom dropp’d"

"In the sweet channel of her bosom": This phrase extends the water metaphor. Her "bosom" refers to her chest, specifically the cleavage or the area between her breasts. "Channel" continues the imagery of a waterway, suggesting the tears flowed down this path. "Sweet" describes her physical beauty, even in sorrow, or perhaps the poignant beauty of her grief.
"dropp’d": The simple verb "dropp'd" effectively conveys the downward movement of the tears as they fall onto her body.
Meaning: And fell into the lovely hollow between her breasts.

Line 5: "But through the flood-gates breaks the silver rain,"

"But through the flood-gates breaks": This phrase signifies the failure of her eyelids (the "sluices" from line 2) to contain the overwhelming grief. "Flood-gates" implies an even larger, more powerful dam than "sluices," emphasizing the irresistible force of her tears. "Breaks" indicates a forceful, sudden, and uncontrollable release.
"the silver rain": Another vivid metaphor for her tears. "Silver" suggests their shimmering appearance, perhaps in the light, or their preciousness and purity. "Rain" emphasizes the continuous, heavy downpour of her sorrow, extending the water imagery.
Meaning: But the tears, like a forceful downpour, burst through her eyelids.

Line 6: "And with his strong course opens them again."

"And with his strong course": "His" refers to the "silver rain" or the flow of tears. The "strong course" emphasizes the powerful, relentless flow and volume of her tears, suggesting they are an unstoppable force.
"opens them again": This implies that the sheer force of the tears (the "silver rain") is so great that it pushes her eyelids open, or that the brief pause described in line 2 is now over, and the tears are flowing freely and uncontrollably. It highlights the involuntary nature of her emotional outpouring.
Meaning: And with their powerful flow, the tears cause her eyelids to open once more, flowing freely.

🎭 Literary Devices

Device	Example	Effect
Simile	"who, like sluices, stopp’d" (Line 2)	Compares Venus's eyelids to gates controlling water, vividly illustrating her momentary attempt to suppress her tears and setting up the extended water metaphor.
Metaphor	"The crystal tide" (Line 3)	Compares tears to a clear, abundant body of water, emphasizing their purity and volume.
Metaphor	"sweet channel of her bosom" (Line 4)	Continues the water imagery, depicting her cleavage as a beautiful path for the tears, intertwining her physical allure with her emotional distress.
Metaphor	"the silver rain" (Line 5)	Compares tears to a glistening, continuous downpour, highlighting their brilliance and quantity, further emphasizing the overwhelming nature of her sorrow.
Extended Metaphor / Conceit	"sluices," "crystal tide," "channel," "flood-gates," "silver rain," "strong course" (Lines 2-6)	Sustains a powerful comparison of Venus's tears and grief to an overwhelming, uncontrollable body of water. This emphasizes the immense, uncontainable nature of her despair.
Personification	"with his strong course opens them again" (Line 6)	Gives the tears (the "silver rain") agency and power, suggesting they are so forceful they can independently "open" her eyelids. This underscores the involuntary and overwhelming nature of her emotional outpouring.
Hyperbole	Implied volume and force of tears via "tide," "flood-gates," "strong course" (Lines 3, 5, 6)	Exaggerates the amount and intensity of Venus's tears, underscoring the extreme depth of her despair and making her grief seem monumental and almost physically manifest.
Imagery (Visual)	"crystal tide," "two cheeks fair," "silver rain" (Lines 3, 5)	Creates vivid mental pictures of Venus's tears and her beauty even in distress, engaging the reader's senses and enhancing the emotional impact of the scene.

🎯 Overall Meaning & Significance in the Context of the Poem

This stanza powerfully depicts Venus's profound emotional devastation following Adonis's final and absolute rejection. It marks a shift from her passionate, assertive pursuit to overwhelming grief. The central meaning is the uncontrollable nature of deep sorrow. Despite her brief attempt to compose herself and "vail her eyelids," her despair is so immense that it bursts forth, symbolized by the tears becoming an unstoppable "crystal tide" and "silver rain," breaking through "flood-gates." This illustrates that her grief is beyond her capacity to contain or suppress.

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

Consequence of Rejection: It underscores the brutal impact of Adonis's coldness on Venus, highlighting the pain of unrequited love and the vulnerability even of a goddess when faced with human indifference. Her tears are a stark contrast to her earlier confident seduction attempts.
Power of Emotion: The extended water metaphor (tide, sluices, flood-gates, rain, channel) emphasizes that Venus's emotions, whether lust or sorrow, are elemental and overwhelming forces. They cannot be held back or controlled, foreshadowing the complete emotional collapse she will experience later when Adonis dies.
Shift in Venus's Characterization: This stanza shows Venus not merely as a lustful pursuer, but as a being capable of profound suffering. Her tears humanize her, eliciting sympathy from the reader despite her earlier aggressive advances. It prepares the reader for her subsequent lamentations and prophecies of love's intertwined relationship with sorrow.
Pathetic Fallacy/Nature's Reflection: The use of natural imagery (tides, rain) to describe her tears subtly links her emotional state to the natural world, a common motif in Shakespeare, suggesting that her grief is as vast and powerful as natural phenomena themselves.
Foreshadowing: The sheer, uncontrollable volume of tears here foreshadows the even greater deluge of grief Venus will experience when Adonis is eventually killed by the boar, emphasizing her predilection for intense emotional responses to loss.