See also AMORETTI (OVERVIEW), ITALIAN (PETRARCHAN)
SONNET.
Janice M. BogstadAmoretti: Sonnet 37 (“What guyle is this, that
those her golden tresses”) EDMUND SPENSER
(1595) Coming as it does within a group of SONNETs
about the manipulations of eyes and ears (35–37 focus
on sight, 39–40 on seeing the lady’s smile, 38 on hear-
ing, 43 on silence or speaking), this sonnet from
EDMUND SPENSER’s Amoretti explores metaphors of
worth and sight, described, as usual, from the perspec-
tive of the lover. Sonnet 37 presents the deceptive
appearance of interchangeability between a “golden
snare” (1. 6) and the lady’s hair, as if the author were
trying out yet another in a long list of rhetorical strate-
gies. The CONCEIT is that the lady’s hairnet of gold and
her golden hair appear to be so cleverly intertwined
that one cannot be distinguished from the other by
sight alone. The wordplay between golden hair and net
of gold, and the net as a “golden snare” (l. 6) in which
the lover can be “entangled” at that same time he is
seduced by gold, is itself attributed to the lady’s guile
and craftiness rather than to some accident of nature.
He is snared, entrapped, caught, and enfolded in her
net. This metaphor of deceit also produces an inter-
mingling of values in that gold has concrete value,
whereas the lady’s hair has only metaphorical power—
but before it, the lover is powerless. Thus, the expected
convention of COURTLY LOVE poetry—powerless lover v.
powerful lady—is reinforced.
Some critics have argued that the author builds up
this image through allusions to the lady’s power, van-
ity, and disdain, only to fi nally valorize her seeming
cruelty as properly modest behavior. This ultimately
frustrates the convention and even, for some critics,
turns it into the preface for the joys of church-sanc-
tioned Christian love.
See also AMORETTI (OVERVIEW).
Janice M. Bogstad
Amoretti: Sonnet 46 (“When my abode’s pre-
fi xed time is spent”) EDMUND SPENSER (1595)
This SONNET pits the lady’s strength against that of
“heauen [heaven’s] most hideous stormes” (l. 3). The
lover must choose between obeying the lady’s attrac-
tion and observing the will of the heavens, “willing me
against her will to stay” (l. 4). He concludes that the
lady’s will is stronger, but asks the heavens to cease
pulling at him, since he cannot affect her behavior:
“Enough it is for one man to sustaine, the stormes,
which she along on me doth raine” (l. 13). He estab-
lishes fi rmly both his loyalty to the lady and his own
weakness—he cannot bear the “wrack” coming from
both parties. His lady is more accessible than the heav-
ens, so he implores them to show the mercy she will
not. This poetic gesture has been variously interpreted
as acknowledging their superiority (thus he needs their
mercy) or foregrounding their irrelevance (thus he
does not care). Is he acknowledging the inferior,
human status of both himself and the lady, or pin-
pointing the unfairness of the heavens in expecting
him to fi ght on two fi elds of battle at once? Most critics
argue the latter as another form of humility and the
former as a kind of pride that begins to equate lover
and lady.
See also AMORETTI (OVERVIEW); SPENSER, EDMUND.
Janice M. BogstadAmoretti: Sonnet 54 (“Of this worlds Theatre
in which we stay”) EDMUND SPENSER (1595)
Seemingly one of the more conventional of Amoretti’s
SONNETs, Sonnet 54 has, until recently, received little
attention. The three QUATRAINs repeatedly oppose the
lover’s volatile emotions to the calm, unmoving con-
stancy of his Lady, to the extent that he ends by calling
her a “sencelesse stone.” The fi rst quatrain contrasts
their demeanor. She is a cold spectator to a pageant
and he the player in that scene. The second addresses
his volatility, from heights of joy and mirth to depths
of sorrow, and the third her indifference. The extended
metaphor of the quatrains is that of a theatre perfor-
mance, one in which the lover is the performer and the
beloved the only important, and usually indifferent,
audience. His emotions are the highs and lows of com-
edy or tragedy; hers are barely perceptible, and only as
mocking or laughter. She responds to his emotions as
if they were a display for her amusement.AMORETTI: SONNET 54 17