howyoudoin
Apr 19 2006, 03:29 PM
Hello, I am doing a project and I need to have peoples responses to this quote. If you can, I would appreciate an in depth response of what you think it means and if you agree or not. Thanks.
These violent delights have violent ends,
And in their triumph die; like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss, consume. The sweetest honey
Is loathsome in his own deliciousness,
And in the taste confounds the appetite.
Therefore love moderately: long love doth so;
Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.
anoniez
Apr 20 2006, 01:17 AM
The poem/quote is very intense; the diction really throws the reader into the feeling - which in this case is a pleasure that is short and intense but ends violently, which even the format perpetuates. Words like "fire and powder," "sweetest honey," "loathsome," and "deliciousness" also emphasize this feeling..
Anyway, I think it means that intense pleasures end quickly at their height, so we should love not too intensely and not too ..not-intensely, but moderately so that it'll last a long time.
And as for agreeing, I don't know. I'd like to think that very intense love can also last a very long time, but this seems more like the stuff of fairytales and movies than real life; I don't know a single senior married couple who loves each other with such extreme intensity. Or even an over 40 married couple. Tolerance, maybe. So I guess I'd agree with the quote, but only to a certain extent, since I think that "violent delights" can last longer than the author believes.