Venus
Per the narrator’s depictions and subconscious explorations, Venus is a symbol for the romantic and lustful desires of the heart. She represents the very romantic desires that have led to the narrator’s own heartbreaks. Venus is symbolic of our primal urges and desires to seek companionship and love in others. She is depicted as being rather mischievous and devious because our most primal desires are often so.
Cupid
In “Pamphilia To Amphilanthus: Sonnet-1,” it is suggested by the narrator that Cupid is Venus’ son. Because Venus is a symbol for desire and romantic urges, Cupid can therefore be interpreted as a messenger for these urges. Though Venus chooses who we will desire, it is Cupid that delivers this message. In this way, Cupid is a metaphor for the universal forces that work together to bring individuals together, based upon their mutual desires for one another.
“Pamphilia To Amphilanthus: Sonnet-1”
This entire poem serves an allegory for lost, cruel love. The narrator of this poem has clearly experienced a broken love that has deeply wounded her heart. In the poem, the narrator refers to Love, as if the emotion is a person with intentional thoughts and acts. She feels that Love is purposefully cruel and is at the root of all heartbreak. Therefore, this entire poem serves as an allegory for the deeply hurtful impact love can have upon our hearts and dispositions. It is a metaphor for lost love and represents how our hearts can be hardened against the institution of love when our hearts have been broken by it.
Unconsciousness
In “Pamphilia To Amphilanthus: Sonnet-1,” unconsciousness during sleep serves as a metaphor for our dreams. The narrator describes how Venus and Cupid visit her during sleep, when her unconsciousness is at its peak susceptibility. It can be interpreted, however, that these visits are really dreams, devised by the narrator’s subconsciousness, to respond to her deepest desires. In this way, the narrator’s own unconsciousness in this poem is a metaphor for our most realistic dreams—the dreams that stay with us when we wake in the morning.
Love
In “Song: Love, a child, is ever crying,” the narrator refers to Love as a character, as a being who makes decisions with intention and purpose. In this way, it can be assumed that Love is a metaphor for all those individuals—likely men—who have perverted love and used it as a weapon against the narrator, to toy with her heart and emotions. Therefore, though Love is depicted as an individual, conscious character, it is but a metaphor for all those men who have perverted the emotion of love and used it to break the narrator’s heart.
