Analysis of from Venus and Adonis
William Shakespeare 1564 (Stratford-upon-Avon) – 1616 (Stratford-upon-Avon)
But, lo! from forth a copse that neighbours by,
A breeding jennet, lusty, young, and proud,
Adonis' trampling courser doth espy,
And forth she rushes, snorts and neighs aloud;
The strong-neck'd steed, being tied unto a tree,
Breaketh his rein, and to her straight goes he.
Imperiously he leaps, he neighs, he bounds,
And now his woven girths he breaks asunder;
The bearing earth with his hard hoof he wounds,
Whose hollow womb resounds like heaven's thunder;
The iron bit he crushes 'tween his teeth
Controlling what he was controlled with.
His ears up-prick'd; his braided hanging mane
Upon his compass'd crest now stand on end;
His nostrils drink the air, and forth again,
As from a furnace, vapours doth he send:
His eye, which scornfully glisters like fire,
Shows his hot courage and his high desire.
Sometime her trots, as if he told the steps,
With gentle majesty and modest pride;
Anon he rears upright, curvets and leaps,
As who should say, 'Lo! thus my strength is tried;
And this I do to captivate the eye
Of the fair breeder that is standing by.'
What recketh he his rider's angry stir,
His flattering 'Holla,' or his 'Stand, I say?'
What cares he now for curb of pricking spur?
For rich caparisons or trapping gay?
He sees his love, and nothing else he sees,
Nor nothing else with his proud sight agrees.
Look, when a painter would surpass the life,
In limning out a well-proportion'd steed,
His art with nature's workmanship at strife,
As if the dead the living should exceed;
So did this horse excel a common one,
In shape, in courage, colour, pace and bone
Round-hoof'd, short-jointed, fetlocks shag and long,
Broad breast, full eye, small head, and nostril wide,
High crest, short ears, straight legs and passing strong,
Thin mane, thick tail, broad buttock, tender hide:
Look, what a horse should have he did not lack,
Save a proud rider on so proud a back.
Sometimes he scuds far off, and there he stares;
Anon he starts at stirring of a feather;
To bid the wind a race he now prepares,
And whe'r he run or fly they know not whether;
For through his mane and tail the high wind sings,
Fanning the hairs, who wave like feather'd wings.
He looks upon his love, and neighs unto her;
She answers him as if she knew his mind;
Being proud, as females are, to see him woo her,
She puts on outward strangeness, seems unkind,
Spurns at his love and scorns the heat he feels,
Beating his kind embracements with her heels.
Then, like a melancholy malcontent,
He vails his tail that, like a falling plume
Cool shadow to his melting buttock lent:
He stamps, and bites the poor flies in his fume.
His love, perceiving how he is enrag'd,
Grew kinder, and his fury was assuag'd.
His testy master goeth about to take him;
When lo! the unback'd breeder, full of fear,
Jealous of catching, swiftly doth forsake him,
With her the horse, and left Adonis there.
As they were mad, unto the wood they hie them,
Out-stripping crows that strive to over-fly them.
I prophesy they death, my living sorrow,
If thou encounter with the boar to-morrow.
"But if thou needs wilt hunt, be rul'd by me;
Uncouple at the timorous flying hare,
Or at the fox which lives by subtlety,
Or at the roe which no encounter dare:
Pursue these fearful creatures o'er the downs,
And on they well-breath'd horse keep with they hounds.
"And when thou hast on food the purblind hare,
Mark the poor wretch, to overshoot his troubles
How he outruns with winds, and with what care
He cranks and crosses with a thousand doubles:
The many musits through the which he goes
Are like a labyrinth to amaze his foes.
"Sometime he runs among a flock of sheep,
To make the cunning hounds mistake their smell,
And sometime where earth-delving conies keep,
To stop the loud pursuers in their yell,
And sometime sorteth with a herd of deer;
Danger deviseth shifts; wit waits on fear:
"For there his smell with other being mingled,
The hot scent-snuffing hounds are driven to doubt,
Ceasing their clamorous cry till they have singled
With much ado the cold fault cleanly out;
Then do they spend their mouths: Echo replies,
As if another chase were in the skies.
"By this, poor Wat, far off upon a hill,
Stands on his hinder legs with listening ear,
To hearken if his foes pursue him still:
Anon their loud alarums he doth hear;
And now his grief may be compared well
To one sore sick that hears the passing-b
Scheme | ABCBCC DEXEXX XFXFEE XGXGAA EHEHII JKJKXX LGLGMM NENEOO EPEPQQ RSRSTT UVUWXX YY CWCWXD WZWZ1 1 2 3 2 3 VV 4 5 4 5 6 6 7 8 7 8 3 C |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111101111 010110101 0101010110 0111010101 01111011001 111010111 1111111 01110111010 0101111111 1101111010 0101110111 010111011 1111110101 011111111 1101010101 110101111 11111110 11110011010 101111101 1101000101 11101101 1111111111 011111001 1011011101 111110101 1100111111 111111111 1111101 1111010111 1101111101 1101010101 011010101 111101011 1101010101 1111010101 010101101 111101101 1111110101 1111110101 1111110101 1101111111 1011011101 0111110111 1111101010 1101011101 01111111110 1111010111 1001111101 11011101100 1101111111 10111111110 1111010101 1111010111 10111101 11010001 1111110101 111110101 1101011011 1101011101 1100110101 11010101111 110110111 10110101011 1001010101 11011001111 11011111011 111111010 11010101110 1111111111 01010100101 1101111100 1101110101 01110101001 0111111111 011111011 1011110110 1101110111 11010101010 010110111 1101010111 111010111 1101010111 01111011 1101010011 01110111 10111111 11111101010 01110111011 1011111110 1101011101 1111111001 1101010001 1111110101 11110111001 111110111 1111111 011111011 1111110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 4,297 |
Words | 783 |
Sentences | 23 |
Stanzas | 17 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 2, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 98 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 199 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 46 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 28, 2023
- 3:59 min read
- 212 Views
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"from Venus and Adonis" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/41375/from-venus-and-adonis>.
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