Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis
‘Give me my hand,’ saith he, ‘why dost thou feel it?’
‘Give me my heart,’ saith she, ‘and thou shalt have it;
O! give it me, lest thy hard heart do steel it,
And being steel’d, soft sighs can never grave it:
Then love’s deep groans I never shall regard,
Because Adonis’ heart hath made mine hard.’
| Device | Example | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Metaphor | "thy hard heart do steel it" | Compares Adonis's heart to a hard, unyielding object, symbolizing his emotional coldness. Extends to Venus's heart "being steel'd," signifying her potential loss of emotional capacity. |
| Repetition | "heart," "hard," "steel'd" | Emphasizes the central theme of emotional hardening and the contrast between softness and insensitivity. The repeated sounds create a sense of inevitability and finality to Venus's potential transformation. |
| Antithesis / Juxtaposition | "soft sighs can never grave it" vs. "hard heart do steel it" | Contrasts the gentle, tender expressions of love ("soft sighs") with the impenetrable, unfeeling nature of a hardened heart. This highlights the destructive power of unrequited love and the emotional barrier Adonis creates. |
| Personification | "soft sighs can never grave it" | Attributes a human-like ability (to engrave or impress) to "soft sighs." This emphasizes that no amount of tender emotion or loving expression can penetrate or alter a heart that has become emotionally hardened. |
| Foreshadowing / Warning | "lest thy hard heart do steel it," "Then love’s deep groans I never shall regard" | Venus's lines serve as a dire warning of the consequences of Adonis's continued rejection. She predicts her own emotional desensitization, hinting at a tragic outcome where even she, the goddess of love, might become indifferent to suffering (including potentially Adonis's own later grief). |
| Parallelism | "Give me my hand,’ saith he," "Give me my heart,’ saith she" | The parallel structure highlights the fundamental difference in their desires and the nature of their interaction. Adonis seeks physical disengagement, while Venus seeks emotional and romantic connection, setting up the core conflict of the poem. |
This stanza is a poignant and pivotal moment in Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis, encapsulating the central conflict and developing the character arcs. It moves beyond the earlier, more playful and persistent advances of Venus to a desperate plea and a stark warning about the consequences of unrequited love.
The core meaning revolves around the transformative power of love and rejection. Venus, the goddess of love, finds herself in an unprecedented position: her passionate advances are met with chilling indifference. Her plea for Adonis's "heart" in return for her own signifies the desired reciprocity of love—a concept Adonis, in his youthful innocence and aversion to adult passion, cannot grasp.
The most significant aspect of this stanza is the motif of the "hardening heart." Venus warns that Adonis's "hard heart" (his emotional coldness and refusal to engage) will, by osmosis, "steel" her own. This is a dramatic irony: the very embodiment of love risks becoming unfeeling due to its unreciprocated intensity. This hardening implies a loss of empathy and compassion, rendering her immune to "soft sighs" and "love's deep groans." This suggests that sustained rejection can wound even the most loving spirit, leading to a defensive emotional shutdown.
In the broader context of the poem, this stanza highlights: * The Power Dynamics of Desire: It underscores Adonis's unexpected power over Venus, despite her divine status and the force of her passion. His indifference proves more potent than her seductive wiles. * The Corruption of Innocence: While Adonis's heart is "hard" in its inexperience, Venus's potential hardening is a corruption of her very essence, foreshadowing the tragic consequences of such a clash between innocence and passion. * Foreshadowing and Pathos: Venus's lament serves as a subtle foreshadowing of Adonis's eventual death. Her warning that she "never shall regard" future "love's deep groans" adds a layer of pathos, suggesting that her capacity for empathy, even for Adonis's eventual suffering, might be irrevocably damaged by his present cruelty. * The Destructive Nature of Unrequited Love: Beyond merely causing pain to the lover, the stanza suggests that unrequited love can fundamentally alter the beloved's capacity to love or even to empathize with love's pain, creating a cycle of emotional sterility.
Ultimately, stanza 63 intensifies the tragic undertones of the poem, portraying love not just as a source of joy and life, but also as a potentially destructive force when met with rejection, capable of hardening hearts and stifling compassion.