🌹 Stanza 42 - Literary Analysis

Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis

📖 Original Stanza

These lovely caves, these round enchanting pits,
Open’d their mouths to swallow Venus’ liking.       
Being mad before, how doth she now for wits?
Struck dead at first, what needs a second striking?
Poor queen of love, in thine own law forlorn,
To love a cheek that smiles at thee in scorn!

🔍 Line-by-Line Analysis

Line 1: "These lovely caves, these round enchanting pits,"

"These lovely caves, these round enchanting pits": This phrase metaphorically refers to Adonis's dimples or other attractive indentations on his face, likely his cheeks. "Caves" and "pits" suggest depth and allure, implying that Venus feels drawn into them. "Enchanting" emphasizes their captivating and almost magical power over her. Shakespeare's choice of these words highlights Venus's intense focus on Adonis's physical beauty, even down to the smallest details, and her feeling of being irresistibly drawn in.
Meaning: "These beautiful indentations, these circular, captivating hollows (referring to Adonis's dimples or facial features),"

Line 2: "Open’d their mouths to swallow Venus’ liking."

"Open’d their mouths": This is personification, attributing the action of opening a mouth to Adonis's dimples. It creates a vivid image of them actively consuming or drawing in Venus's emotions.
"to swallow Venus’ liking": Implies that Adonis's beauty, specifically these captivating facial features, consumes or absorbs Venus's affection, desire, and perhaps even her reason. "Liking" here means her affection, passion, or inclination. It suggests a one-sided consumption, where Venus's love is absorbed without reciprocation, deepening her unrequited passion.
Meaning: "His dimples seemed to open like mouths, ready to consume Venus's affection and ardent desire."

Line 3: "Being mad before, how doth she now for wits?"

"Being mad before": Refers to Venus's already intense and irrational obsession with Adonis, which has been evident throughout the poem. "Mad" signifies being overcome by passion to the point of losing one's reason or sanity.
"how doth she now for wits?": This is a rhetorical question that powerfully emphasizes her complete and utter loss of sanity. If she was already crazed by love, how much more has she lost her mental faculties now, especially after witnessing Adonis's scorn? "For wits" means "as for her mental faculties" or "what about her sanity?"
Meaning: "If she was already consumed by passion before, how much more has she lost her sanity now?"

Line 4: "Struck dead at first, what needs a second striking?"

"Struck dead at first": This is a metaphor, signifying the initial, devastating emotional blow Venus experienced from Adonis's indifference or rejection. It conveys that her hopes, spirit, or emotional well-being were metaphorically 'killed' instantly.
"what needs a second striking?": Another rhetorical question, reinforcing the idea that the initial blow (Adonis's profound indifference) was so complete and devastating that any further emotional impact, such as his scornful smile, is redundant and cannot inflict more pain. It underscores the depth of her despair and emotional annihilation.
Meaning: "If her spirit was already crushed by his initial indifference, what purpose could a further blow serve?"

Line 5: "Poor queen of love, in thine own law forlorn,"

"Poor queen of love": This is an apostrophe, directly addressing Venus with a sense of pity and irony. It highlights the paradoxical situation of the goddess of love herself being so wretchedly unlucky in love.
"in thine own law forlorn": This is a central ironic statement. "Thine own law" refers to the domain over which Venus rules: love and desire. "Forlorn" means abandoned, desolate, or miserable. The profound irony is that the very goddess who governs love is abandoned, miserable, and powerless within her own realm, unable to secure love from a mere mortal, thus a failure by her own divine standards.
Meaning: "Oh, unfortunate goddess of love, abandoned and miserable within the very realm you govern,"

Line 6: "To love a cheek that smiles at thee in scorn!"

"To love a cheek that smiles at thee in scorn!": This line is the tragic culmination of Venus's suffering. It starkly highlights the painful irony of her situation: she is deeply in love with someone who not only rejects her advances but actively displays contempt for her affection, especially through his facial expressions. The "smile in scorn" is a powerful image of cold, dismissive rejection, directly contrasting with the warmth and acceptance she desires.
Meaning: "To find herself loving someone whose very expression shows contempt for her!"

🎭 Literary Devices

Device	Example	Effect
Personification	"These lovely caves... Open’d their mouths"	Gives human qualities to Adonis's dimples, making them seem active and predatory in consuming Venus's desire. This emphasizes the irresistible pull they have on her and the sense of her agency being swallowed by his beauty.
Metaphor	"Struck dead at first"	Compares the initial emotional blow of Adonis's rejection to a fatal strike, conveying the intense, devastating impact it has on Venus's hopes and spirit, even though she is not physically dead.
Rhetorical Question	"how doth she now for wits?", "what needs a second striking?"	Used to emphasize Venus's complete loss of sanity and the depth of her despair. These questions require no answer, as their purpose is to highlight the severity of her emotional state and the redundant nature of further pain.
Irony	"Poor queen of love, in thine own law forlorn"	Creates a stark contrast between Venus's divine status as the goddess of love and her current state of being abandoned and miserable within her own domain. This highlights the paradox of her powerlessness in a realm she supposedly controls, underscoring the arbitrary and often cruel nature of love.
Apostrophe	"Poor queen of love"	A direct address to Venus, the absent or abstract entity. It serves to evoke pity for her situation and emphasize the tragic irony of her unrequited love, drawing the reader's sympathy to her plight.
Imagery	"These lovely caves, these round enchanting pits," "swallow Venus’ liking," "smiles at thee in scorn!"	Creates vivid mental pictures of Adonis's features and Venus's emotional state. The "caves" and "pits" suggest depth and allure, while the "swallowing" action depicts her overwhelming desire. The "smile in scorn" powerfully conveys Adonis's cruel indifference, making his rejection palpable.
Alliteration	"lovely caves," "struck...striking," "smiles...scorn"	The repetition of initial consonant sounds adds a musicality and emphasis to the lines. "Lovely caves" enhances the allure of Adonis's features. "Struck...striking" reinforces the force of the blow. "Smiles...scorn" links the two contradictory concepts, highlighting the painful irony of his expression.

🎯 Overall Meaning & Significance in the Context of the Poem

Stanza 42 deepens the portrayal of Venus's consuming and ultimately self-destructive passion for Adonis. It emphasizes her abject despair and the profound irony of the goddess of love being so utterly powerless and wretched in her own domain. The stanza opens by focusing on Adonis's seemingly innocuous physical details—his dimples, described as "caves" and "pits"—which Venus perceives as irresistible traps that "swallow" her affection, underscoring her complete enthrallment and loss of agency. This intense focus on a minor physical attribute highlights the obsessive nature of her desire, which has driven her to the brink of madness, as queried by "Being mad before, how doth she now for wits?"

The stanza powerfully conveys the one-sided nature of their interaction, where Venus's passionate advances are met with Adonis's steadfast, almost cruel, indifference, culminating in a "cheek that smiles...in scorn." This dismissive smile, rather than alleviating her suffering, serves as a final, unnecessary blow, as her spirit was "Struck dead at first." The repeated rhetorical questions amplify her agony and the futility of her continued pursuit.

In the broader context of Venus and Adonis, this stanza is crucial for several reasons: 1. Themes of Unrequited Love and Powerlessness: It epitomizes the poem's central theme of unrequited love and the ironic power dynamics at play. Venus, the divine embodiment of love, is reduced to a "Poor queen of love, in thine own law forlorn," illustrating that even gods are vulnerable to the whims of desire and rejection. 2. Destructive Nature of Passion: It showcases how unchecked passion, when unreciprocated, can lead to madness, despair, and a loss of dignity, even for a deity. Venus's descent into a state of "forlorn" madness underscores the potentially destructive force of desire. 3. Adonis's Implacability: The stanza further solidifies Adonis's character as stubbornly resistant and perhaps even disdainful of Venus's advances. His "smile...in scorn" is a significant moment, showing his active contempt rather than mere disinterest, escalating the emotional conflict. 4. Foreboding: This deepening sense of despair and the unbridgeable chasm between Venus's desire and Adonis's rejection set a melancholic and tragic tone, foreshadowing the inevitable sad conclusion of their encounter and the broader themes of love's fleeting nature and its often painful consequences.