Stevenson and Bridges’ Poems on Eros, The God of Love

Like his female counterpart Aphrodite, Eros, the Greek god of love, is esteemed throughout both ancient and modern art and literature for his immortal beauty, but often that is the only aspect of his existence that is ever addressed. Consequently, Eros is more commonly associated with lust than love, as pointed out in Robert Bridges 1899 poem “Eros” and Anne Stevenson’s 1990 poem of the same title. While both poets acknowledge Eros’ awkward position as a distorted deity, the express this observation differently. Bridges praises the god’s fetching looks just as the confused masses do but he also recognizes that great beauty alone does not grant happiness and can in fact cause pain out of isolation from the rest of society. Stevenson agrees that Eros is ironically overlooked at times despite his beauty, but unlike Bridges, she is able to view Eros’ unfortunate situation from his perspective and explains how Eros is frequently misunderstood because his character is so often overlooked in favor of his beauty.

Robert Bridge’s poem Eros reveres Eros’ unique beauty, but his description is tinged with pity. Once worshippers witness Eros’ phenomenal beauty, they soon become accustomed to it because the mystique is gone. Eros is even seen as a bubble-headed caricature of a god—all beauty and no brains. Bridges describes Eros’ beauty through vivid imagery and epithets, such as “idol of the human race” (line two), “flower of lovely youth” (line four), “image of external Truth” (line six), “exuberant flesh so fair” (line seven), “chaste marmoreal form” (line nine), and “starry sheen of nakedness”. The declaration that only the supremely talented sculptor Pheidias could render something as fair as Eros is yet another compliment on the god’s looks. Bridges also conveys Eros’ noble looks by using elevated language. He addresses the god with a formal register that the poet conveys through archaic language (ie, “thou”, “yea”, “thy”, “art”, “ere”, “O”, “knowest”, “wouldst”, “makest”). The poem exhibits the usage of ballad verse (the heartbeat rhymn), the consistent rhyme scheme (AABBCC), and the even meter (eight syllabes per line) that run throughout the piece. In using these traditional poetic devices, Bridges creates a sense of old time nostalgia, which heightens Eros’ beauty. The repetition of the word “human” in lines two and three suggest that while Eros is not human, he does possess certain human emotions. He is not a statue or any other kind of inanimate object and should therefore be respected, not unjustly worshipped and quickly forgotten as he all to often is. The narrator suggests that Eros is viewed merely as a “pretty boy” with no thoughts running through his head, as evidenced by the statement “Surely thy body is thy mind” (line thirteen). Eros is naive and even possesses a certain “innocence” (line eighteen); he is so young that he is still “unchristen’d” (line fifteen). The word “unchristen’d” could also refer to the fact that Eros is a pagan god, and only because he is a pagan god could he ever be confused for an object of lust. A Christian god’s “shameless will and power immense” (line seventeen) could never be concealed as his is because these two qualities are just too apparent to the worshipper. This may imply that Yaweh is thus more legitimate as a god than any pagan god ever could be. Such an implication elicits further pity for Eros, this poor, misunderstood god, but Stevenon’s poem draws far more sympathy from the reader. After all, Bridges does state that Eros is “no victim of [his] grace” (line twenty-three).

Stevenson’s poem describes the abuse that Eros must endure as a result of effectively becoming the god of lust. Because Eros is so physically attractive, most people tend to focus on his appearance rather before they ever try to admire his spiritual beauty. Consequently, Eros has lost a fair amount of his honor because lust is far more base than love. While love is one of humanity’s greatest gifts, lust, especially in excess, is one of its foulest. Thus, this poem is much more emotively appealing than Bridges’ because it dwells upon the physical and emotional pain with which he must cope, rather than focusing solely upon bearing with the insult of being worshipped as an object of lust. Stevenon conveys Eros’ abuse through telling diction, such as “broken nose” (line three), “boxer lips” (line seven), “patchy wings askew” (line eight), “brute” (line ten), “long overuse” (line eleven), “blows” (line fifteen), “battered visage” (line twenty-one), and “bruised” (line twenty-two). The poem’s inconsistent rhyme scheme conveys a harshness that emphasize the unfair abuse Eros has had to endure as a result of people gravitating towards his looks before they learn anything else about him. The only characteristic consistent about the poem’s meter is that every two lines has a total of ten syllables, but, while the sum remains the same, the addends vary. One combination may be a four and a six syllable set of lines, while another may be a seven and three syllable set. This may suggest that while the abuse Eros endures is a constant occurrence, it is something that happens sporadically and without warning. From a mere visual perspective, Stevenson’s poem looks very bare, almost skeletal, which conveys the fragility of an abused creature. Bridges’ poem, however, is much more robust—the lines are longer and the overall poem is longer than Stevenson’s “Eros”, perhaps because the Eros described in his poem is far less fragile than Stevenson’s Eros. Stevenson broaches that the worship of lust, or more specifically, the worship of Eros as the god of lust, causes Eros’ wounds. But despite this abuse, Eros is still hopeful that some people will refrain from further degrading him by remembering him as the god of love, rather than lust. This hope, while perhaps childishly optimistic, is what Eros thrives upon. He states “Better my battered visage/Bruised but hot/Than love dissolved in loss/Or left to rot” (lines twenty-one to twenty-four).

Bridges and Stevenson both present wonderfully complex poems in tribute to Eros, each narrator expressing his sympathy for the god of love in a unique way. Bridges describes Eros’ amazing beauty, but explains that he is more than a gorgeous face—if only his worshippers would bother to learn that. Stevenson fixates upon the abuse that Eros must endure for being worshipped as the god of lust, rather than the god of love. What neither narrator seems to realize, however, is that it is too late to change the god’s tarnished reputation.