Summary

As the poem continues, the focus shifts to the encounter between Lucrece and Tarquin. It begins with Tarquin entering the bedchamber and looking longingly at Lucrece. He catalogs her physical beauty as she sleeps. As Tarquin looks at her, he feels even more caught up in his lust, and multiple different metaphors are used to describe both Lucrece's beauty and Tarquin's lust for her.

She awakens suddenly and is terrified to find a man in her room. She asks why he is there, and he answers that it is because she is so beautiful. He says that he must "enjoy her" that night (511). If she refuses, he will kill her and place the body of a slave in her bed so everyone will think he killed her because she was an adulteress. Therefore, she and her husband will both be humiliated. If she agrees...