Sonnet 154

Cupid slept and a virgin maiden took his torch and quenched it, creating a healing bath; yet it cannot cool my love for you.

Original

Modern

1 The little Love-god lying once asleep,

Once, when the small god of love lay fast asleep,

2 Laid by his side his heart-inflaming brand,

Left by his side his heart-igniting torch,

3 Whilst many nymphs that vowed chaste life to keep,

While many nymphs who swore to keep their chastity,

4 Came tripping by, but in her maiden hand,

Came walking by, but one in her young hands

5 The fairest votary took up that fire,

The fairest disciple took up that torch,

6 Which many legions of true hearts had warmed,

Which had warmed countless legions of true hearts,

7 And so the general of hot desire,

And so the general of all burning desire,

8 Was sleeping by a virgin hand disarmed.

Was disarmed while sleeping by a virgin's hand.

Volta The volta mirrors 153: from myth to application. The universal remedy fails because love is not a physical disease susceptible to water and heat.

9 This brand she quenched in a cool well by,

This torch she put out in a cool well nearby,

10 Which from Love’s fire took heat perpetual,

Which then took eternal heat from Love's fire,

11 Growing a bath and healthful remedy,

And grew into a bath and healthy medicine,

12 For men diseased; but I, my mistress’ thrall,

For sick men; but I remain my beloved's prisoner,

13 Came there for cure and this by that I prove,

Came there for healing and this proves what I know:

14 Love’s fire heats water, water cools not love.

final couplet: love's irreducible nature

Love's fire heats water; water cannot cool love.

Double Epilogue and Classical Closure

The paired sonnets 153–154 serve as epilogue to the entire sequence. By returning to classical myth and retreating from the speaker's personal drama, they suggest that love's anguish is eternal and archetypal, not unique to his case. The repetition (nearly word-for-word in places) implies resignation: this is the way love is; nothing new can be said.

The Final Paradox

The closing couplet—'Love's fire heats water, water cools not love'—is the sequence's ultimate statement. It reverses the logic of the bath's creation. The bath was meant to cool desire (the fire quenched it), but paradoxically, the fire's heat is now permanently in the water; it cannot be separated or quenched. Love is not a fire that can be extinguished but a fundamental property of existence, inescapable and immutable.

If this happened today

Like the conclusion of a tragedy: even with the best external remedy available, some conditions are incurable. Your feelings persist because they are not amenable to the logic of normal cause and effect.

← Sonnet 153 All Sonnets