# Venus and Adonis explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by William Shakespeare.

## What happens

The poem opens with Venus passionately wooing the scornful Adonis, who prefers hunting to love. After a series of arguments and embraces, Adonis breaks away to hunt the boar and is killed. Venus mourns him, prophesies the sorrows of love, and from his blood creates a purple flower, which she takes to Paphos to cherish forever.

## Themes in this chapter

### Love and Desire

Venus's aggressive, unrequited desire for Adonis drives the narrative, highlighting the tension between lust and rejection.

### Beauty and Transience

Adonis's physical beauty is emphasized, but his death and transformation into a flower underscore the fleeting nature of youth and loveliness.

### Time and Mortality

Venus's prophecy about love's future woes and Adonis's death reflect the inescapable passage of time and mortality.

## Character check-ins

### Venus

The goddess of love, who aggressively pursues Adonis, mourns his death, and transforms his blood into a flower.

### Adonis

A beautiful youth who scorns love and hunting, dies from the boar, and is transformed into a flower.

### Death

Personified as the force that destroys Adonis, prompting Venus's prophecy.

### Love

Personified as a central theme; Venus speaks of love's future sorrows and deceptions.

### Time

Referenced by Venus as 'Wonder of time' in her lament for Adonis's mortality.

## Key lines

> Sick-thoughted Venus makes amain unto him, And like a bold-faced suitor 'gins to woo him.

Love-sick Venus rushes to Adonis and begins to court him aggressively.

_Establishes Venus's dominant, pursuing role from the start._

> He burns with bashful shame: she with her tears Doth quench the maiden burning of his cheeks;

Adonis blushes with embarrassment, but Venus's tears cool his flushed face.

_Highlights the contrast between Venus's passionate heat and Adonis's cold resistance._

> Since thou art dead, lo, here I prophesy: Sorrow on love hereafter shall attend:

Because you are dead, I now foretell that love will always be accompanied by sorrow.

_Venus's curse on love after Adonis's death, linking love to future pain._

> And in his blood that on the ground lay spill'd, A purple flower sprung up, chequer'd with white,

From the blood spilled on the ground, a purple flower streaked with white grew.

_The transformation of Adonis's blood into a flower symbolizes his lasting beauty and transience._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_28_se/chapters/venus-and-adonis
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_28_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_28_se/chapters