The poem opens with an image of Love sitting in triumph. Love in this case is personified as Cupid, the Roman god of erotic love and desire. Cupid is triumphant because a celebratory profession is taking place around him featuring all the bleeding hearts punctured by his successful shots from his bow and arrow. Although Cupid is typically depicted as a playful wielder of this weapon, Love is here depicted as possessing and practicing the power of a tyrant.
This power, the speaker explains, is twofold. She asserts that the destructive fire of Cupid's arrows was taken from her beloved's eyes (to whom the poem is addressed), while the emotion of desire was taken from her. Furthermore, Love gained from her beloved his cruelty while from her it gained despair in the form of "sighs and tears" (9). This combination of disparate elements has, the speaker argues, made Love into a deity with unparalleled power. Ultimately, however, it is the speaker who has been harmed in the process while her beloved remains unscathed.
