Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis
Full gently now she takes him by the hand,
A lily prison’d in a gaol of snow,
Or ivory in an alabaster band;
So white a friend engirts so white a foe:
This beauteous combat, wilful and unwilling,
Show’d like two silver doves that sit a-billing.
| Device | Example | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Extended Metaphor | Hand-holding as imprisonment and combat | Transforms a simple gesture into a complex power struggle |
| Color Imagery | "lily," "snow," "ivory," "alabaster," "silver" | Creates a palette of whiteness suggesting purity, beauty, and coldness |
| Oxymoron | "beauteous combat," "white...friend...white...foe" | Highlights the contradiction between beauty and conflict, friendship and enmity |
| Simile | "like two silver doves that sit a-billing" | Contrasts the struggle imagery with peaceful, loving imagery |
| Personification | Hands as "friend" and "foe" | Gives body parts human characteristics and relationships |
| Alliteration | "Full gently," "wilful and unwilling" | Creates musical rhythm that enhances the tender mood |
| Metaphor | "lily prison'd in a gaol of snow" | Compares the physical interaction to floral imprisonment |
| Antithesis | "wilful and unwilling" | Directly contrasts Venus's determination with Adonis's resistance |
This stanza marks a crucial moment where Venus shifts from verbal persuasion to gentle physical contact, representing a more subtle and potentially effective approach to seduction. The imagery creates a complex interplay between tenderness and force, beauty and conflict.
Strategic Shift: Venus moves from aggressive rhetoric to gentle touch, recognizing that physical tenderness might succeed where passionate speeches have failed. This shows her adaptability and understanding of different seductive techniques.
The Paradox of Gentle Force: The imagery of imprisonment ("gaol," "band," "engirts") within descriptions of gentleness creates a paradox. Venus's touch is simultaneously tender and constraining, loving and possessive.
Color Symbolism: The repeated emphasis on whiteness ("lily," "snow," "ivory," "alabaster," "silver") suggests purity and innocence, but also coldness and distance. Both characters are described as white, suggesting they are equally pure but also equally cold to each other.
Combat as Courtship: The description of their hand-holding as "beauteous combat" captures the essential tension of their relationship—what should be intimate and loving becomes a battle of wills.
Friend vs. Foe Dynamic: By describing Venus as "friend" and Adonis as "foe," Shakespeare emphasizes that their conflict isn't based on mutual antagonism but on Venus's desire meeting Adonis's resistance.
Doves as Resolution: The final image of billing doves provides a peaceful alternative to the combat imagery, suggesting what their relationship could be if both were willing participants.
Tactile Seduction: This represents Venus's most successful moment in the poem—she achieves physical contact and creates a moment of beauty despite Adonis's resistance.
Foreshadowing: The image of imprisonment ("gaol") subtly foreshadows the tragic outcome of Venus's possessive love, which will eventually contribute to Adonis's destruction.
Artistic Beauty: The stanza itself demonstrates how conflict can be aesthetically beautiful—the "beauteous combat" mirrors Shakespeare's own artistic achievement in making their struggle poetically gorgeous.
This stanza shows Venus at her most effective, using gentle touch rather than overwhelming rhetoric, creating a moment of genuine beauty that transcends their fundamental incompatibility.