Why Was Cupid a Boy
Why Was Cupid a Boy - context Summary
Published 1794
A short satirical poem questioning why Cupid is depicted as a boy. Blake playfully argues that love’s playful power—traditionally associated with women’s gaze—is miscast when framed as masculine and warlike. He links the transformation to Greek martial values, suggesting that making Love male produces seriousness, cares, and the loss of joy. The poem appears in Blake’s 1794 Poems of William Blake and reads as a cultural critique wrapped in light verse.
Read Complete AnalysesWhy was Cupid a boy, And why a boy was he? He should have been a girl, For aught that I can see. For he shoots with his bow, And the girl shoots with her eye, And they both are merry and glad, And laugh when we do cry. And to make Cupid a boy Was the Cupid girl's mocking plan; For a boy can't interpret the thing Till he is become a man. And then he's so pierc'd with cares, And wounded with arrowy smarts, That the whole business of his life Is to pick out the heads of the darts. 'Twas the Greeks' love of war Turn'd Love into a boy, And woman into a statue of stone-- And away fled every joy.
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