Meaning & Analysis
Lovers claim to live on love alone, but this sustenance is as insubstantial as larks (a kind of bird) living on leeks; in reality, neither is enough to survive on.
Insights
Love’s Insufficiency
The proverb gently mocks the idea that love alone can sustain a person, equating it to the fanciful notion that larks can thrive on leeks—implying both are inadequate for survival.
Mockery of Romantic Idealism
It satirizes the language of lovers who profess that love alone is their food and life, suggesting such sentiment is naïve or impractical.
Critique of Impracticality
By drawing a humorous parallel between lovers and birds supposedly living on a meager diet, the saying warns against relying solely on emotion or passion without regard for real, practical needs.
Alliterative Appeal and Popularity
The proverb’s enduring popularity owes much to its alliterative charm (‘lovers live by love as larks live by leeks’), making it catchy and memorable even as it pokes fun at the subject.
Historical Satire
Used from the sixteenth century onward, the phrase often appeared in collections as a jest or gentle derision, deflating sentimental expressions and highlighting the folly of ‘living on love alone.’
Connection to Other Sayings
Similar proverbs—like ‘a man cannot live on air like a chameleon’—stress the need for substance over sentiment, and are used to rebuke impractical or overly idealistic notions about love or life.
Underlying Social Commentary
The proverb reflects a skepticism toward romantic rhetoric, grounding its wisdom in the realities of daily life and material needs.
Rhetorical Devices
Simile
The direct comparison (‘as larks live by leeks’) is a humorous simile, providing vivid imagery that enhances the proverb’s memorability.
Alliteration
Repetition of the ‘l’ sound in ‘lovers,’ ‘live,’ ‘larks,’ and ‘leeks’ lends musicality and mnemonic power.
Irony
There is clear irony in the idea that larks could live on leeks, just as lovers cannot subsist on love alone; the proverb thus achieves a gently mocking tone.
Transcription
Quotations
Louers lyue by loue, ye as larks lyue by leekes.
Men . . die for loue, when larkes die with leekes.
Some liue by loue. —Yea as Larkes doo by leekes.
(as larkes by leekes).
He lives by love, as larks by leeks.
They bee some that do liue of Loue. —Well yea, as Larkes do of Leekes.
(as larkes do by leekes).
[As in 1639 Cl.]
To liue sparingly, to feed upon nothing, as it were, Upon Love; the English commonly say, as Larks do of Leeks.
[As in 1616 Dr.]
You live on Love as Laverocks do on Leeks.
Cross References
Annotations
- This is I conceive in derision of such expressions as living by love. Larks and leeks beginning with the same letter help'd it up to be a Proverb.
- A Jest upon them that eat little.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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