Sunday, July 30, 2023

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

‘Had I no eyes but ears, my ears would love

That inward beauty and invisible;

Or were I deaf, thy outward parts would move

Each part in me that were but sensible:

Though neither eyes nor ears to hear or see,

Yet should I be in love by touching thee.'

 

 

Venus

Venus and Adonis                  Line 433 - 438



This is a stanza in the middle of this long poem about Venus and Adonis. The poem is 1,194 lines long, so this is about a third of the way through.

Venus it telling Adonis how enraptured she is with him. Unfortunately for her, he doesn’t seem to be the least bit interested.

This is an interesting dichotomy, isn’t it: the woman in love with the man, and the man being completely not in love with her. In fact, it’s an interesting dichotomy irrespective of whether it’s the man or woman who is the disinterested one. I suppose we’ve seen tons of this in literature, in media, and in real life. And it can be a very problematic situation.

In the case of Venus and Adonis, Adonis gets killed in an unrelated situation before the love/no-love problem can run its full course. Unfortunately (it’s odd to use the word unfortunately when speaking about not dying), in most cases of the love/no-love problem, a completely unrelated cause of death is not the resolution. More unfortunately, a related cause of death is in some cases also the resolution.

Whilst the ideal is, of course, love/love, there’s also the many in-between cases of love/not-the-same-amount-of-love. In fact, arguably, this might be the most prevalent situation. Oh, I suppose there are plenty of love/love’s out there, but being the realist that I am, I think the love/not-the-same-amount-of-loves are the majority.

I’m not sure how I got going down this road today. I think it’s partly because yesterday I ran into a case of love/no-love-but-just-going-along-with-it-for-now. This is a serious in-betweener, leaning dangerously in the direction of love/no-love. I can’t help but wonder how this one's going to turn out. I’ll keep you posted.

A group shot. This famous group got together yesterday for Big Bro's 70th, the first one of us to reach that milestone.
Happy Birthday Dave!


1 comment:

Squeaks said...

Is this a poem where Venus and Adonis talk back and forth?

  Today’s Totally Random Lines                  How, my lord! What cheer? How is’t with you, best brother? Polixenes The Winter’s ...