Lucretius criticizes love and claims that it is physically and emotionally damaging. He compares lovers to thirsty people who can never be satisfied because they are unable to “remove anything from the velvety limbs” of the other person. In his eyes, lovers are endlessly willing to keep trying to satisfy their cravings and remain squirming in the “bonds on Venus” because of this. Ellie Goulding, though a modern music artist, uses very similar language when describing the body of her lover. “Not one bone in your body is good enough for me” emphasizes how she is never pleased with one part of him but rather wants all of him, which can never be possible. This insatiable hunger for another’s body is reflected throughout the song, as she repeats that there is something about him that she can’t get enough of. She is bound to wanting him, just like lovers are bound by Venus according to Lucretius.
Lovers are “so in love” with each other and their eyes can’t get enough of their bodies. Lucretius points out that their judgement is clouded by Venus because they are so in love. However, Ellie Goulding says that when she sees her lover, she can “only see the end”. She recognizes that her lover is bad for her but she still comes back to him. Both Ellie and the lovers in this book by Lucretius are addicted to their lovers, but at least Ellie can recognize the effect her lover has on her.
Lucretius
Page 130, lines 1095 – 1105 and 1113 – 1115
Just like thirsty people who in dreams desire to drink and, instead of obtaining water to quench the fire that consumes their limbs, with vain effort pursue images of water and remain thirsty, though they drink in the midst of a torrent stream, so in love, lovers are deluded by Venus with images: no matter how intently they gaze at the beloved body, they cannot sate their eyes; nor can they remove anything from the velvety limbs that they explore with roving, uncertain hands.
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But it is all in vain, since they cannot take away anything from their lover’s body or wholly penetrate and merge into it. At times they do indeed seem to be striving and struggling to do this: so eagerly do they remain fettered in the bonds of Venus…