What Thing is Love?
George Peele
George Peele earned his B.A. in 1577 and
his M.A. in 1579 at Oxford. When he
returned to Oxford on business in 1583,
two years after his departure for London,
he managed the performance of two Latin
plays by William Gager for the
entertainment of a Polish prince. The rest
of his life was spent pursing varied literary
efforts, some of which met with moderate
success. Peele, however, seems to have
been given to excesses, so he spent much
of his life in debt. He died before he
reached age 40 and remains today a
relatively unknown author.
George Peele 1558-1596
WHAT THING IS LOVE by George Peele
What thing is love? for sure love is a thing.
It is a prick, it is a sting,
It is a pretty, pretty thing;
It is a fire, it is a coal,
Whose flame creeps in at every hole;
And as my wit doth best devise,
Love's dwelling is in ladies' eyes,
From whence do glance love's piercing darts,
That make such holes into our hearts;
And all the world herein accord,
Love is a great and mighty lord;
And when he list to mount so high,
With Venus he in heaven doth lie,
And evermore hath been a god,
Since Mars and she played even and odd
❤The poem examines the various
forms of love. A rhetorical
question opens the poem—”What
thing is love?”—and an answer is
expected, but the speaker explains
“for sure love is a thing.” The
choice of the word “thing” infers
something simple, yet mysterious.
Eventually, the speaker describes
love as a gradual thing from
a prick to sting, which stresses the
pain of love.
❤In contrast, the third line views
the soothing aspect of love as
something pretty, but the
repetition of the word casts some
doubt on that truth.
cutlassfury@deviantart.com
Content
❤ The fourth line reveals the real intent of the
ironic beauty to describe love as a fire and coal.
Thus, Love is uncontrollable, passionate and
destructive. This destructiveness is so
pervading that it destroys the whole being of
any man who falls under its spell.
❤ Line six, however, presents the limitation of the
speaker’s knowledge in describing love—
“And, as my wit doth best devise.”
❤ He continues with his description of love in line
seven by identifying its location in ladies’ eyes,
where men are made to fall in love. The poem
concludes with the permanent impact of love
on men.
bryanbaldwin.hubpages.com
Content
gallery.mobile9.com
Theme
• This poem is about love's impact. The
speaker notes that love ("a pretty, pretty
thing) is accompanied by pain (“a prick…a
sting.”)
• Men are being warned of the subtleties of
love as it "creeps in at every hole." Men
should be careful of "ladies' eyes." Once a
man has been snared by "love's piercing
darts," he will have his heart broken because
love is so strong, even comparing it to a
"mighty lord."
• Men must be careful because they will think
"With Venus he in heaven doth lie" when
they place love (or a woman) on this
pedestal or "mount so high." However,
“Mars and she,” will play games of "even
and odd" with men to confuse them and to
take advantage of their lovesickness.
• The dominant theme relates to the perils of
being in love, including its destructiveness.
❤ What Thing is Love is lyrical
fifteen-line poem.
❤ It uses its title to build the
rhetorical question applied in
the first line to define love.
This is subsequently followed
by various attempts to describe
the various forms and nuances
of love.
❤ The first four lines use
anaphora to begin each
definition (“it is”); then, the
definition of love becomes
more complex as the speaker
identifies its destructive nature.
Form and Structure
laugh.blogspot.com
❤The poem is metaphorically
compares love to “a prick, a
sting, a pretty thing, a fire, a
coal, flame” to portray the
complexity and
destructiveness of love.
❤The uncontrollable nature of
love is accented as it
“make[s] such holes into
our hearts.”
❤Love is personified several
times—in “ladies’ eyes” and
as a “great…lord.”
❤There is an allusion to
Cupid’s darts, which cause
men to fall in love.
Poetic Devices
The rhetorical
questions initially
convey a doubtful
voice on what
exactly love is. The
various scenarios
listed by the
speaker reveal an
inquiring tone that
is embittered by the
symptoms of love.
Tone
aaaummm.wordpress.com by omeruysal
madamenoire.com
Sound Devices
❤ The rhetorical question
launches the variations of
love listed, and this sets
the speculative tone of
the poem in motion.
❤ To further accentuate the
simplicity and yet the
complexity of what love
is, repetition is used in a
very simple sentence
structure. This is
followed by a complex
exploration of love in
lines 5 to 10.
❤ The repetitive alliteration
of p in prick, pretty
presents love as simple so
as to complement
the thing in line one.
❤The sense of doubt of what love is,
which pervades the poem, is marked
by caesuras .These are also used to
contrast some key symbols of what
love is such as ”…fire [and]…coal.”
❤The same effect is what the endstops of the poem tend to achieve as
they draw attention to the caution
that love demands.
❤The use of couplets
(AAABBCCDDEEFFGG) attempts
to capture what love is to depict a
more precise definition of love.
marussaka.deviantart.com
Sound Devices
❤ Monosyllabic
words comprise the
poem, making it
easy to understand.
❤ One of the
strengths of the
poem is its
symbolism with
words such
as prick,
sting, coal, which
also have
metaphorical
implications.
❤ Ironically, Cupid is
the blind son of
Venus in ”love’s
piercing darts.”
lovelearnings.com
Diction
leoriq@deviantart.com
http://literatureencore.net/?p=74
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/george-peele
Works Cited