Part 8

Lines 1177–1194

1177 'Poor flower,' quoth she, 'this was thy father's guise,
1178 Sweet issue of a more sweet-smelling sire,
1179 For every little grief to wet his eyes:
1180 To grow unto himself was his desire,
1181 And so 'tis shine; but know, it is as good
1182 To wither in my breast as in his blood.
1183 'Here was thy father's bed, here in my breast;
1184 Thou art the next of blood, and 'tis thy right:
1185 Lo! in this hollow cradle take thy rest,
1186 My throbbing heart shall rock thee day and night:
1187 There shall not be one minute in an hour
1188 Wherein I will not kiss my sweet love's flower.'
1189 Thus weary of the world, away she hies,
1190 And yokes her silver doves; by whose swift aid
1191 Their mistress, mounted, through the empty skies
1192 In her light chariot quickly is convey'd;
1193 Holding their course to Paphos, where their queen
1194 Means to immure herself and not be seen.

Notes

TLN 1177archaic vocab

“this was thy father's guise, Sweet issue”

'Guise' means custom or habitual manner (OED s.v. 'guise', n., sense 2a). 'Issue' means offspring or child. Venus addresses the anemone flower as though it were Adonis's own child, saying weeping at every small grief was its father's way, and so the flower has inherited it.

TLN 1180classical allusion

“To grow unto himself was his desire”

Growing 'unto himself' — turning inward, wanting only oneself — recalls the myth of Narcissus, the youth who fell in love with his own reflection and wasted away. Earlier in the poem (line 161) Venus had warned Adonis directly: 'Narcissus so himself himself forsook, / And died to kiss his shadow in the brook.' The flower's nature mirrors its father's self-enclosure.

classical Narcissus