Meaning & Analysis
Despite planting a large quantity of seeds in a dense manner, only a small, sparse number of them actually sprout and grow into plants.
Insights
Effort versus Outcome
Signifies the common experience of receiving a poor return on a large investment of effort, time, or resources. It highlights the frustrating gap between initial promise and the final, disappointing result.
Potential and Actuality
Reflects the idea that while potential may be widespread, its actualization is rare. Many people may start with promise, but few achieve true excellence or virtue, suggesting that quality is inherently scarce.
Appearance versus Reality
Warns that abundance in appearance does not guarantee substance. Something that seems plentiful or common on the surface may, upon closer inspection, prove to be rare and of little value.
Agrarian Realism
Rooted in the uncertainties of agriculture, the proverb reflects a pre-modern worldview where effort did not guarantee reward. It captures the perennial anxiety of farmers whose livelihoods depended on unpredictable natural forces, making it a powerful metaphor for life's inherent unpredictability.
Psychology of Expectation
The proverb serves as a psychological defense against disappointment. By framing high potential and low outcomes as a natural, expected phenomenon, it helps manage expectations and fosters a sense of stoic acceptance in the face of failure or scarcity.
Social Cynicism
As seen in the quotations from Lyly and Torriano, the proverb was quickly adapted as a form of social commentary, often expressing a cynical view on the scarcity of true virtue, beauty, or honesty in society, despite abundant appearances.
Rhetorical Devices
Antithesis
The proverb's power lies in the direct contrast between 'thick' and 'thin', creating a memorable and forceful statement about the discrepancy between expectation and reality.
Agricultural Metaphor
The use of 'sown' and 'comes up' grounds an abstract idea in the concrete, universal experience of planting and harvesting, making the proverb's meaning immediately accessible.
Parallelism
The phrase has a balanced, rhythmic quality due to its parallel structure ('Thick sown... thin comes up'), which enhances its memorability and proverbial feel.
Transcription
Quotations
Faire women are set thicke, but they come vp thinne.
True Loues are often sown, but seldom grow on ground.
The bounteous graces of God are sowen thicke, but come vp thin.
Husbands, they say, grow thick; but thin are sowne.
To be rarer than a white flie, viz. to be rare indeed, and usually apply'd to honest men; the English would say to such a purpose, They are thick sown, but they come thin up.
Such men come up thin.
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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