Meaning & Analysis
The phrase refers to a task that is never completed or always has something left undone, likening it to the seemingly endless work on St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Insights
Perpetual Incompletion
The proverb is applied to any project or endeavor that drags on indefinitely, with continual additions, delays, or modifications preventing its completion.
Frustration with Process
It reflects the frustration or futility felt when dealing with undertakings that never seem to reach a conclusion, often due to changing requirements or overambition.
Symbol of Human Endeavor
More broadly, the proverb serves as a metaphor for the never-ending nature of some human ambitions or undertakings, which may be grand in scope but resistant to finality.
Historical Reference
St. Paul’s Cathedral underwent centuries of rebuilding and repair, much like other grand European structures (e.g., St. Peter’s in Rome). This made 'Paul’s work' a vivid symbol for endless construction in early modern English speech.
Cultural Critique
The saying often carried a tone of gentle mockery or critique toward overambitious projects or those responsible for poor planning, hinting at the folly of never knowing when to call something 'done.'
Universality
Variants appear in many cultures, attaching similar meanings to other famously unfinished works, which reflects a universal human frustration with the limits of completion.
Rhetorical Devices
Allusion
References the protracted history of St. Paul’s Cathedral as a shorthand for endless labor or incompletion.
Metonymy
Uses 'Paul’s work' to signify any interminable task, broadening its application beyond the literal church.
Irony
There is an ironic undertone: what was meant to be a grand accomplishment instead becomes a byword for delay and perpetual unfinishedness.
Transcription
Quotations
When he had done, made Poules-worke of it, as for these Twynnes these Poet-apes.
Never finish'd, alwaies something to be done to it: the English say, Pauls work.
That will ne'r be quite finish'd, as that of Saint Peters in Rome; To have Pauls work in hand, would the English say.
But I must dispatch, for I see He's making Paul's work on't already.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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