🌹 Stanza 161 - Literary Analysis

Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis

📖 Original Stanza

O! how her eyes and tears did lend and borrow;
Her eyes seen in the tears, tears in her eye;
Both crystals, where they view’d each other’s sorrow,
Sorrow that friendly sighs sought still to dry;     
But like a stormy day, now wind, now rain,
Sighs dry her cheeks, tears make them wet again.

🔍 Line-by-Line Analysis

Line 1: "O! how her eyes and tears did lend and borrow;"

"O!": An exclamation expressing intense emotion, particularly sorrow or lamentation, emphasizing the speaker's awe at the profundity of Venus's grief.
"her eyes and tears": Refers to Venus's physical eyes and the profusion of tears flowing from them, directly linked to her deep sorrow.
"did lend and borrow": This is a metaphor describing an intimate, reciprocal exchange or an inseparable intermingling. The eyes produce the tears (lend), and the tears reflect or are illuminated by the eyes (borrow), creating a continuous, dynamic relationship where each element contributes to and takes from the other, signifying their intertwined nature in her sorrow. Shakespeare chose this phrase to convey the ceaseless and mutual interaction of her physical manifestations of grief.
Meaning: "Oh, how her eyes and tears were perpetually intertwined, mutually giving to and taking from each other."

Line 2: "Her eyes seen in the tears, tears in her eye;"

"Her eyes seen in the tears": Describes the visual phenomenon where light reflecting off the abundant tears allows Venus's eyes to be seen through or within the glistening surface, indicating a flood of tears.
"tears in her eye": This is a more literal statement, emphasizing that her eyes are completely filled with tears. The structural inversion (a form of chiasmus) from "eyes in tears" to "tears in eye" creates a repetitive emphasis that highlights the complete saturation of her vision and face with overwhelming grief. Shakespeare uses this poetic device to underscore the pervasive and inescapable nature of her sorrow.
Meaning: "Her eyes were visible through the tears, and her eyes were completely filled with tears."

Line 3: "Both crystals, where they view’d each other’s sorrow,"

"Both crystals": Refers to both Venus's eyes and her tears. "Crystals" signifies clarity, transparency, and a reflective quality. Eyes are often described as crystal-like due to their clarity and ability to reflect light, and abundant tears can also glisten like crystals. Shakespeare uses this word to visually elevate the scene and imply the intense, almost pure, manifestation of her grief.
"where they view’d each other’s sorrow": This is an instance of personification. "They" refers to the eyes and tears. It means that the eyes, seeing the sorrow, and the tears, being the physical manifestation of that sorrow, are intrinsically linked in the experience of grief. Metaphorically, they are witnessing the profound sadness that flows between them, highlighting the all-encompassing nature of her distress.
Meaning: "Both her eyes and her tears, clear and glistening like crystals, visibly reflected and revealed the depth of her sorrow."

Line 4: "Sorrow that friendly sighs sought still to dry;"

"Sorrow that friendly sighs": "Friendly sighs" personifies Venus's own sighs, depicting them as having a compassionate or sympathetic intent towards her overwhelming sorrow. They are "friendly" because they are a natural, perhaps unconscious, physical reaction to grief, attempting to alleviate it.
"sought still to dry": "Sought" means attempted or endeavored. "Still" here means "always" or "continually." Thus, her sighs were constantly striving to dry her tears or soothe her grief. This phrase suggests a continuous, yet ultimately futile, effort by Venus's own body to overcome or reduce the intensity of her profound emotional pain. Shakespeare personifies the sighs to underscore the active, though unsuccessful, internal struggle with her despair.
Meaning: "Her overwhelming sorrow was such that her own sympathetic sighs constantly attempted to dry her tears."

Line 5: "But like a stormy day, now wind, now rain,"

"But like a stormy day": This introduces a vivid simile, directly comparing Venus's emotional state and its physical manifestations (sighs and tears) to the turbulent and unpredictable conditions of a storm. It signals a relentless, dynamic struggle.
"now wind, now rain": "Wind" is aligned with the sighs (expelled breath, a powerful movement like wind), while "rain" is aligned with the tears (water falling). This specific imagery vividly maps the natural elements onto her physical expressions of grief, emphasizing their cyclical, powerful, and overwhelming nature. Shakespeare uses this common natural phenomenon to make Venus's complex emotional turmoil relatable and visually striking.
Meaning: "But just like a stormy day, alternating between gusts of wind and pouring rain,"

Line 6: "Sighs dry her cheeks, tears make them wet again."

"Sighs dry her cheeks": The forceful expulsion of breath during deep sighs could literally have a drying effect on the skin, or it metaphorically suggests an attempt to clear away the wetness of tears, representing an effort to compose herself or stop crying.
"tears make them wet again": This highlights the immediate and ongoing futility of the sighs' efforts. As soon as the sighs attempt to dry her cheeks, fresh tears flow, instantly re-wetting them. This creates a relentless, self-perpetuating cycle of grief, where any fleeting attempt at relief is immediately undone, underscoring the overwhelming and unyielding nature of Venus's despair. Shakespeare employs this paradox to emphasize the inescapable trap of her sorrow.
Meaning: "Her sighs momentarily dry her cheeks, only for new tears to immediately make them wet once more."

🎭 Literary Devices

Device	Examples	Effects
Metaphor	"eyes and tears did lend and borrow"	Conveys the intimate, inseparable, and reciprocal relationship between Venus's eyes and tears, suggesting a constant exchange and intermingling in her grief.
Metaphor	"Both crystals"	Elevates the physical elements (eyes and tears) to something precious, pure, and reflective, emphasizing their clarity and the transparent display of her profound sorrow.
Personification	"eyes and tears did lend and borrow"	Attributes human actions (lending and borrowing) to inanimate parts, deepening the sense of interaction and intensity in her grief.
Personification	"eyes...view’d each other’s sorrow"	Gives human faculties of sight and perception to eyes and tears, emphasizing their shared, intrinsic experience and manifestation of grief.
Personification	"friendly sighs sought still to dry"	Depicts sighs as having an active, almost compassionate, intent to alleviate sorrow, highlighting the futile internal struggle against overwhelming emotion.
Simile	"But like a stormy day, now wind, now rain"	Creates a vivid, relatable comparison between Venus's fluctuating emotional state (sighs and tears) and the powerful, dynamic forces of a storm, emphasizing the uncontrolled and relentless nature of her grief.
Antithesis/Paradox	"Sighs dry her cheeks, tears make them wet again."	Highlights the futility and cyclical nature of her grief. The opposing actions (drying and wetting) create a loop of despair, demonstrating that any attempt to alleviate sorrow is immediately undone by its reassertion.
Chiasmus (or near)	"Her eyes seen in the tears, tears in her eye"	Inverts the order of words for emphasis, underscoring the complete saturation of her vision and face with tears and the inseparable connection between her eyes and the tears flowing from them.
Imagery	"crystals", "stormy day, now wind, now rain", "wet cheeks"	Creates strong visual and sensory details that allow the reader to vividly imagine Venus's physical state and emotional turmoil, making her suffering palpable and immediate.

🎯 Overall Meaning & Significance in the Context of the Poem

This stanza offers a profoundly poignant and vivid portrayal of Venus's overwhelming grief following the death of Adonis. It microscopically examines the physical manifestations of her sorrow – specifically her eyes and tears – but uses rich metaphorical language and personification to convey the depth and intensity of her emotional agony.

The opening lines, with the "lend and borrow" metaphor and the chiastic structure of "eyes in tears, tears in eye," establish a powerful image of perpetual, intertwined sorrow. Her eyes and tears are not merely physical responses; they are "crystals," elevated to objects of pure, reflective grief, through which her profound sadness is made exquisitely visible. The personification of "friendly sighs" attempting to "dry" her sorrow underscores a desperate, yet futile, internal struggle for self-comfort or control over an uncontrollable emotion.

The turning point of the stanza, and perhaps its most potent image, is the simile comparing Venus's state to a "stormy day, now wind, now rain." This not only encapsulates the dynamic, ceaseless, and almost violent nature of her grief but also beautifully maps her physical responses (sighs like wind, tears like rain) onto natural, powerful phenomena. The concluding line, "Sighs dry her cheeks, tears make them wet again," is a powerful paradox. It illustrates the relentless, self-perpetuating cycle of her despair, where any fleeting attempt at relief is immediately undone by the resurgence of fresh tears. This conveys an image of unyielding, overwhelming sorrow that defies any mitigation or control.

In the broader context of Venus and Adonis, this stanza is pivotal. It marks the complete and tragic transition from Venus's passionate, albeit unrequited, pursuit of love to her profound and enduring lamentation. It signifies the devastating consequences of Adonis's rejection of love (and embrace of chaste hunting) and his subsequent death, which brings about an overwhelming cosmic sorrow. This intense, almost pathological, display of grief solidifies the poem's thematic focus on the destructive power of unrequited love and loss, as well as the fragility of beauty and youth in the face of mortality. The stanza's vivid and unrelenting imagery ensures that the reader fully comprehends the depth of Venus's suffering, underscoring the poem's exploration of desire, death, and the enduring nature of grief.