Love
In the poem, Love is personified as Cupid, the son of Venus. Cupid is the Roman god of erotic love and desire, known for his playful and mischievous nature. Cupid carries with him a bow and arrow that has the power to entrap any mortal in love, and as such appears as a common allusion in early modern English love poetry. In this particular poem, Behn dispels with traditional representations of the childish little god and instead portrays Cupid as tyrannical and all-powerful, underscoring the speaker's sense of loss over her unrequited love.
The Speaker
The speaker of the poem is an unnamed woman who is lamenting an unrequited love. As such, her perception of Cupid is one characterized by violence and tyranny, as she imagines him sitting triumphant among bleeding hearts he has punctured. The speaker argues that both she and her beloved are responsible for "arming" Cupid in this way, as they have each lent him different elements of love that render it a powerful weapon of destruction. By the end of the poem, however, the speaker realizes that it is only her heart that has been wounded in the process.
The Beloved
The poem is addressed to the speaker's beloved who has, presumably, not returned her affections and desires. As such, the speaker imagines that Cupid has taken from her beloved all of love's more painful attributes—cruelty, pride, and the fire used to pierce the hearts of other lovers. By the end of the poem, the speaker labels her beloved the "Victor," equating her beloved with Cupid as he sits in tyrannical triumph over wounded lovers (16).
