🌹 Stanza 88 - Literary Analysis

Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis

📖 Original Stanza

‘Fair queen,’ quoth he, ‘if any love you owe me,
Measure my strangeness with my unripe years:        
Before I know myself, seek not to know me;
No fisher but the ungrown fry forbears:
The mellow plum doth fall, the green sticks fast,
Or being early pluck’d is sour to taste.

🔍 Line-by-Line Analysis

Line 1: 'Fair queen,' quoth he, 'if any love you owe me,

"Fair queen": Adonis addresses Venus formally and respectfully, acknowledging her status and beauty, but without implying personal affection. It's a polite but firm opening to his refusal.
"quoth he": An archaic way of saying "said he." Shakespeare frequently uses this phrase to indicate spoken dialogue.
"if any love you owe me": This is a conditional plea. Adonis implies that if Venus's professed love for him is genuine, she should demonstrate it by respecting his wishes and leaving him alone. It positions his request as a test of her true affection.
Meaning: "Adonis said, 'Beautiful queen, if you truly have any genuine affection or obligation towards me,"

Line 2: Measure my strangeness with my unripe years:

"Measure my strangeness": "Strangeness" here refers to Adonis's aloofness, unresponsiveness, or uninterest in Venus's advances. "Measure" means to judge, interpret, or understand. He is asking her to consider his behavior in light of his age.
"with my unripe years": "Unripe" uses a powerful metaphor (continued in later lines) to describe his youth and immaturity. He is not yet ready, emotionally or physically, for the kind of passionate love Venus desires. He asks her to account for his reluctance by acknowledging his young age.
Meaning: "Please interpret my reserved and unresponsive behavior by taking into account my young, immature age:"

Line 3: Before I know myself, seek not to know me;

"Before I know myself": Adonis means before he has fully developed his own identity, self-awareness, and understanding of his own desires and place in the world. He lacks the maturity to define himself independently.
"seek not to know me": "Know" here carries a double meaning common in Shakespeare: to understand intimately and, more importantly in this context, to know carnally (as in the biblical sense of sexual intimacy). Adonis is telling Venus not to pursue him for intimacy or to delve into his inner self before he has even grasped it himself.
Meaning: "Before I understand my own identity and desires, do not try to pursue or intimately know me;"

Line 4: No fisher but the ungrown fry forbears:

"No fisher but": This means "no fisherman except." It sets up an analogy, implying that only a foolish fisherman would disregard the natural order.
"the ungrown fry": "Fry" refers to young, recently hatched fish that are too small to be valuable for fishing. "Ungrown" emphasizes their immaturity. Adonis is implicitly comparing himself to these immature fish.
"forbears": Avoids, refrains from taking or catching. A sensible fisherman would refrain from catching tiny fish, allowing them to grow. Adonis suggests Venus should likewise leave him to mature.
Meaning: "No fisherman, except a senseless one, would bother catching tiny, underdeveloped fish:"

Line 5: The mellow plum doth fall, the green sticks fast,

"The mellow plum doth fall": "Mellow" means ripe, soft, and sweet. "Doth fall" means "does fall," implying that a ripe plum falls naturally from the tree when it's ready. This is a metaphor for someone mature and ready for love, who would naturally embrace it.
"the green sticks fast": "Green" refers to an unripe plum. "Sticks fast" means it remains firmly attached to the branch, resisting being picked. This is a direct metaphor for Adonis himself – he is unripe and resistant to being "picked" (pursued sexually).
Meaning: "A ripe plum falls naturally from the tree, but an unripe one remains firmly attached,"

Line 6: Or being early pluck’d is sour to taste.

"Or being early pluck’d": This refers to an unripe plum being picked prematurely, before its natural time of readiness. This directly parallels Venus's aggressive pursuit of Adonis.
"is sour to taste": If an unripe plum is eaten, it will be unpleasant and bitter. This is a warning to Venus: forcing Adonis into love or sexual activity before he is ready will not yield the pleasure she seeks; instead, it will be an unsatisfactory, perhaps even damaging, experience for both of them.
Meaning: "Or if it is picked too early, it will taste bitter and unpleasant."

🎭 Literary Devices

Device	Example	Effect
Metaphor	"unripe years" (Line 2)	Compares Adonis's age and emotional state to fruit that is not yet mature, highlighting his unreadiness for love and implicitly suggesting that forcing the issue would be unnatural and unproductive.
Metaphor	"ungrown fry" (Line 4)	Compares Adonis to immature fish, reinforcing the idea that he is not yet "ready to be caught" (i.e., sexually engaged). It also suggests that pursuing him now would be a fruitless effort, much like fishing for tiny, insignificant catches.
Extended Metaphor/Analogy	"The mellow plum doth fall, the green sticks fast, / Or being early pluck’d is sour to taste." (Lines 5-6)	Continues the fruit metaphor, presenting a vivid image of natural readiness versus forced action. It underscores Adonis's argument that love, like fruit, must ripen naturally, and that premature engagement leads to undesirable outcomes, emphasizing the unpleasant consequences for Venus if she persists.
Repetition / Polyptoton	"know myself... know me" (Line 3)	The repetition of "know" with different grammatical functions (verb and object) draws attention to the contrast between self-awareness and external intimacy. Adonis emphasizes that his internal state is incomplete, and therefore, external intimacy is premature and unwelcome.
Imagery	"ungrown fry," "mellow plum," "green sticks fast," "sour to taste"	Appeals to visual and gustatory senses, making Adonis's argument concrete and relatable. The natural imagery underscores his appeal to natural order and timing, contrasting it with Venus's forceful, unnatural desire.
Foreshadowing	"sour to taste" (Line 6)	Hints at the eventual bitter outcome of Venus's persistent, unrequited love and her failure to achieve lasting pleasure or satisfaction from Adonis, anticipating the tragic conclusion of the poem. It suggests that forcing love ultimately yields no sweetness.
Rhetorical Question (Implied)	"No fisher but the ungrown fry forbears" (Line 4)	While stated as a declarative, it functions as an implied rhetorical question, challenging Venus to consider the foolishness of acting against natural wisdom. It implies that only an unwise person would pursue something so unready.

🎯 Overall Meaning & Significance in the Context of the Poem

In this stanza (88), Adonis delivers his most coherent and compelling argument against Venus's advances. He moves beyond simple shyness or indifference to articulate a reasoned justification for his chastity, grounding it in the principles of natural timing and maturity.

His core message is that he is "unripe" for love. Through the metaphors of the "ungrown fry" and, most powerfully, the "mellow plum" versus the "green" plum, Adonis argues that love, like fruit or fish, has a natural season and must be allowed to mature. Forcing a premature "harvest" will not yield pleasure but only bitterness—it will be "sour to taste." This directly addresses Venus's pursuit, implying that her relentless desire will lead to an unsatisfying outcome for her, and perhaps even harm him.

This stanza is significant because it: * Solidifies Adonis's character as chaste and aligned with nature: Unlike Venus, who embodies unbridled, often unnatural, desire, Adonis represents natural order, patience, and growth. His arguments are logical and rooted in observable natural processes. * Highlights the central conflict of the poem: The clash between Venus's impulsive, passionate, and destructive love and Adonis's cool, natural, and growth-oriented reluctance. It frames their interaction not just as a seduction attempt, but as a battle between two opposing philosophies of love and desire. * Foreshadows the tragic outcome: Adonis's warning that forced love will be "sour to taste" directly foreshadows the tragic and unfulfilling end of Venus's pursuit, culminating in Adonis's death and her profound grief, which ultimately leaves her with no sweet fruit from her endeavors. * Explores themes of youth and readiness: The poem delves into the idea that love is not merely a physical act but requires emotional and psychological readiness, which Adonis clearly lacks at this stage of his life. His argument critiques the idea of forced love and its inherent unnaturalness.