Question

Ruby wine is drunk by knaves,
Sugar spends to fatten slaves,
Rose and vine-leaf deck buffoons;
Thunderclouds are Jove's festoons,
Drooping oft in wreaths of dread
Lightning-knotted round his head;
The hero is not fed on sweets,
Daily his own heart he eats;
Chambers of the great are jails,
And head-winds right for royal sails.

i dont really get what the author is portraying in this poem (: Anyone explain?

Answer 1

Can anyone please help? (:

Answer 2

I had a much much better and more detailed version of this post but my computer decided it was hungry so this is my much condensed take two.

I believe the poem's is potraying heroism in a light we are not used to seeing.
The main theme of this poem, as I interpret it, is that heroism and
heroes are bound in some ways, perhaps by the whims/needs of those who employ them to slay dragons or what have you, but the tone is definitely not what we are socialized to expect when speaking of heroes and heroism.
IF I had to condense it into a single sentence I think the best way to do so would be to say “All that glitters isn’t gold.”

Below are a few other things I noticed:

Jove - mild exclamation of surprise, archaic name for Jupiter, who was the Greek lead God, known by the Romans as Zeus, who is associated with thunder
Nature Imagery: Rose and Vine-leaf, Thunderclouds, Wreaths, Lightning, and Head-wind.

The nature described in the poem starts out as a neutral force but then quickly becomes malevolent.

Intra-poem comparison:
“Sugar spends to fatten slaves… The hero is not fed on sweets/Daily his own heart he eats/Chambers of the great are jails.” Here the hero is compared to a slave by the poem’s speaker, but a poorly treated one who instead of being placated with sweats must consume his emotions, his own heart, to function.