🌹 Stanza 18 - Literary Analysis

Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis

📖 Original Stanza

'Over my altars hath he hung his lance,
His batter'd shield, his uncontrolled crest,        
And for my sake hath learn'd to sport and dance
To toy, to wanton, dally, smile, and jest;
Scorning his churlish drum and ensign red
Making my arms his field, his tent my bed.

🔍 Line-by-Line Analysis

Line 1: "'Over my altars hath he hung his lance,"

"Over my altars": Venus refers to her sacred altars where worship and sacrifices to the goddess of love would be performed. This establishes her divine authority and sacred space.
"hath he hung his lance": "He" refers to Mars, the god of war and Venus's lover in mythology. To hang one's lance means to surrender weapons, signifying the end of warfare and the embrace of peace. This is a ritual act of laying down arms.
Meaning: "Above my sacred altars, he has surrendered his spear,"

Line 2: "His batter'd shield, his uncontrolled crest,"

"batter'd shield": His war shield, damaged and worn from battle. The word "battered" emphasizes that this is a seasoned warrior's equipment, marked by real combat experience.
"uncontrolled crest": The plume or ornament on a warrior's helmet. "Uncontrolled" suggests it was wild, fierce, or untamed—fitting for a god of war. Now it too has been laid aside.
Meaning: "His battle-worn shield and his fierce helmet plume,"

Line 3: "And for my sake hath learn'd to sport and dance"

"for my sake": Because of his love for Venus, motivated by his devotion to her. This shows the transformative power of love over the war god.
"hath learn'd to sport and dance": Mars has acquired gentle, peaceful arts. "Sport" means to play or frolic; "dance" represents refined, courtly behavior. These are activities associated with love and peace, not war.
Meaning: "And because of his love for me, he has learned to play and dance"

Line 4: "To toy, to wanton, dally, smile, and jest;"

"toy": To play lightly or amorously; to engage in playful love-making or flirtation.
"wanton": To behave playfully or lustfully; to frolic without restraint. In Venus's context, this has sexual connotations.
"dally": To linger lovingly; to spend time in pleasant, leisurely activities, often with romantic implications.
"smile, and jest": Simple pleasures of happiness and humor—emotional states foreign to a grim god of war.
Meaning: "To play lovingly, frolic passionately, linger romantically, be happy, and joke around;"

Line 5: "Scorning his churlish drum and ensign red"

"Scorning": Disdaining, rejecting with contempt. Mars now despises what he once valued.
"churlish drum": The military drum that calls soldiers to battle. "Churlish" means rude, harsh, or brutish—describing the crude, violent nature of war's music.
"ensign red": The red military banner or flag. Red symbolizes blood, violence, and war. The "ensign" represents martial authority and command.
Meaning: "Despising his harsh war drum and his blood-red battle flag"

Line 6: "Making my arms his field, his tent my bed."

"Making my arms his field": Instead of the battlefield ("field" of war), Mars now finds his arena in Venus's embrace. Her arms become his new territory of conquest—but a loving conquest rather than violent one.
"his tent my bed": Military tents are temporary shelters for soldiers; Venus's bed becomes his dwelling place. This transforms the military metaphor into an intimate, domestic one.
Meaning: "Making my embrace his battlefield, and my bed his dwelling place."

🎭 Literary Devices

Device	Example	Effect
Extended Metaphor	War imagery throughout the stanza	Compares love's power to military conquest, showing how love can defeat war itself
Antithesis	War vs. love activities (lance/dance, drum/bed)	Emphasizes the complete transformation from violence to tenderness
Synecdoche	"my arms," "my bed"	Parts represent the whole person of Venus, creating intimate imagery
Alliteration	"sport and," "dally...dance," "smile...jest"	Creates musical rhythm that mirrors the dancing and jesting described
Religious Imagery	"altars"	Elevates love to a sacred act, making Venus's power divine
Catalog/List	"toy, to wanton, dally, smile, and jest"	Accumulates peaceful activities to emphasize the completeness of Mars's transformation
Color Symbolism	"ensign red"	Red represents blood, violence, and war—what Mars has abandoned
Personification	"churlish drum"	Gives the drum a personality, making it seem crude and unrefined

🎯 Overall Meaning & Significance in the Context of the Poem

This stanza presents Venus's account of her successful seduction of Mars, the god of war, serving as both a boast and an example of love's supreme power. Venus uses this mythological precedent to argue that if she can transform the god of war himself, surely she can win over a mortal youth like Adonis.

Love Conquers War: The central theme is love's triumph over violence. Mars, the embodiment of warfare and aggression, completely abandons his martial nature for Venus. This represents one of literature's oldest themes—the civilizing power of love over brutality.

Complete Transformation: The stanza shows a total reversal of Mars's character. He moves from: - Weapons to worship (hanging his lance over altars) - Battle to play (learning to sport and dance) - Aggression to affection (toying, wantoning, dallying) - War cries to laughter (smile and jest) - Battlefield to bedroom (arms as field, bed as tent)

Strategic Rhetoric: Venus presents this story as evidence of her power and as a precedent for what should happen with Adonis. If the god of war can be transformed by love, why should a beautiful youth resist?

Gender Role Reversal: Just as Venus pursues Adonis (reversing typical gender roles), here she depicts herself as the conqueror of Mars, traditionally the ultimate masculine figure. This continues the poem's exploration of power dynamics in love.

Sacred vs. Profane: The juxtaposition of "altars" (sacred) with the bedroom imagery suggests that for Venus, sexual love is itself a form of worship—a sacred act rather than merely physical pleasure.

Irony in Context: While Venus uses this story to demonstrate love's power, it also reveals why Adonis might be resistant. Mars was a willing participant who "learned" to love; Adonis remains fundamentally unwilling, making Venus's conquest much more difficult.

This stanza serves as Venus's strongest argument for the legitimacy and power of her desire, while simultaneously highlighting the central problem of the poem: love's power may be supreme, but it cannot force genuine affection from an unwilling heart.