Within the framework of a poetic reading, critics
assert that the lover is demonstrating the knowledge
that he, or both of them, plays a part in a familiar
drama. His is the part of the suffering lover and his
Lady’s that of the hard-hearted observer. Some have
gone so far as to interpret the entire sonnet as a self-
refl exive presentation of performance and artistry, that
his volatility is a mere varied attempt to get a reaction,
not a display of true emotion. In other words, there are
two lover and two lady personae, those who play the
ITALIAN (PETRARCHAN) SONNET roles and those who
transcend them with a sophisticated understanding of
the play of words and roles. And in playing a part, the
narrator may speak of suffering, but is also comfortable
in the assurance that his suit will succeed.
See also AMORETTI (OVERVIEW); SPENSER, EDMUND.
Janice M. Bogstad
Amoretti: Sonnet 62 (“The weary yeare his race
now having run”) EDMUND SPENSER (1595) Son-
net 62 from EDMUND SPENSER’s Amoretti celebrates the
commencement of the new year. In many ways, the
poem reads as a typical “New Year’s resolution”: full of
optimism, hope, and plans for personal betterment.
Lines 1–4 describe the transition from the old “weary”
year to the new year. With the image of the “shew of
morning” in line 3, the speaker brings the larger idea of
the new year into focus by minimizing it to the span of
a single day; thus, the sunrise, the start of a new day, is
a metaphor for the start of a new year. In lines 5–8, the
speaker asks that with the new weather there be a new
attitude, a reformation of behavior. The image of the
sun is again conveyed in lines 9–12; this time, the new
year is fi gured as the sun shining after a storm. The
metaphor here is based on a conditional: If we amend
our behavior, as the speaker calls for us to do in the
previous lines, then the “glooming world” with its
“stormes” will calm down, and the clouds will “tymely
cleare away”—in short, our new year will be better
than our last year. However, a reformed outlook is not
the only path to a happier year; in the fi nal COUPLET,
the speaker changes the subject specifi cally to love,
which he states also has the power to “chaunge old
yeares annoy to new delight.”
The SONNET’s rhyme scheme conforms to Spenser’s
trademark form: three quatrains rhyming abab, bcbc,
cdcd; and a fi nal couplet rhyming ee. Often considered
the most diffi cult form in the English language, the
Spenserian sonnet complicates the traditional ENGLISH
SONNET form by employing a series of “couplet links”
between quatrains. By interweaving the quatrains, the
sonnet reduces the stress on the fi nal couplet to resolve
the foregoing argument, observation, or question.
Consequently, the speaker begins to resolve his argu-
ment in line 9. This structure reveals how the entire
sonnet is composed as a conditional statement, which
essentially asserts the following: If we refresh ourselves
with the renewal of the year, then our year will be bet-
ter than the last. In the fi nal couplet, love functions as
the mode through which we may replenish ourselves
with the new year.
Criticism of the poem has centered mainly on the
interpretation of the date it is celebrating. Most critics
agree that the New Year to which the poems refers is
the one beginning on March 25, the date of Gabriel’s
annunciation to Mary, rather than the one noted in
Elizabethan almanacs, which starts on January 1.
Detractors of this theory assert that such a date would
place the sonnet cycle during the season of Lent, which
was not an appropriate time for wooing (since wed-
dings could not be performed during Lent). However,
proponents of the Lenten date indicate that the phrase
chaunge eek our mynds (l. 6) is extracted from a prayer
proper to Lent from the Geneva Bible meaning “to
change the mind,” “to be converted,” or “to repent.”
Moreover, the religious undertones of the sonnet, as
well as of the entire SONNET SEQUENCE, confi rms the
poem’s theological meaning. For example, the frequent
images of sunlight, and specifi cally the line “into the
glooming world his gladsome ray” (l. 10), refer to bib-
lical passages such as the following from John 12.46: “I
am come a light into the darkened worlde.” Aside from
this dominant critical debate, many critics opt to read
the poem biographically, viewing the fi rst-person plu-
ral pronouns us and we as references to Spenser and his
future wife, Elizabeth Boyle.
See also AMORETTI (OVERVIEW).
Melissa Femino18 AMORETTI: SONNET 62