What proceeds after these initial statements is a lov-
ing description of marriage. The fi rst two quatrains
play with the word bond from the phrase bonds of mar-
riage—punning on bonds as “bondage” and then mov-
ing to the word bands in the next four lines. These lines
are both an affi rmation and a contradiction of common
Petrarchan CONCEIT. The captive lover is a traditional
feature of Petrarchan love poetry, as is the poet’s argu-
ment that the lady will paradoxically gain more liberty
once captured than if she remains unfettered by the
bonds of love. However, Spenser’s use of the conceit is
different: He places this idea within the context of mar-
riage rather than an affair or a platonic relationship.
Most Petrarchan lovers sing to women who are unat-
tainable: those of higher social classes or those who are
already married.
The placement of the poem within the structure of
the SONNET SEQUENCE adds yet another caveat to Spens-
er’s use of Petrarchan conceits. The poem takes place
on March 28, the Thursday before Easter (Maundy
Thursday). This day celebrated the institution of the
new covenant, sealed by the Resurrection. The day was
associated with marriage in Spenser’s time through the
common reading of Psalm 128, which was often read
at evening prayers on that day; it was also read during
the marriage service. Spenser’s application of post-Ref-
ormation covenantal thought to a Petrarchan poem
about marriage is a clear departure from the traditional
use of the form by 16th-century English poets.
See also AMORETTI (OVERVIEW), ITALIAN (PETRARCHAN)
SONNET.
Melissa FeminoAmoretti: Sonnet 66 (“To all those happy bless-
ings which ye have”) EDMUND SPENSER (1595) In
some ways, Sonnet 66 of EDMUND SPENSER’s Amoretti is
a continuance of the argument for marriage that was
offered in the previous SONNET. The speaker describes
his fi ancée in the most exalted terms; about himself he
uses the most humble and self-deprecating terms,
describing himself as something that is made even
baser through his comparison to her. “To all those
happy blessings which ye have,... this one disparage-
ment they to you gave, / that ye your love lent to so
meane a one” (ll. 3–4). It is not until the fi nal COUPLET
that the argument for marriage is made, though mar-
riage itself is alluded to in many of the previous lines.
The fi nal argument is again based on his unworthi-
ness and on her perfection. He begins by writing, “for
now your light doth more it self dilate, / and in my
darknesse greater doth appeare” (ll. 11–12). Thus, he
is not merely arguing that she should marry, but that
she should marry him; with him, she will be even more
perfect, more so than if she married “a princes pere” (l.
10). The couplet then offers the main thesis of his
poem: “Yet since your light hath once enlumind me, /
with my refl ex yours shall encreased be” (ll. 13–14).
These lines suggest a reciprocal relationship. The
speaker is telling his future bride that she is more bril-
liant with him than she would be without him because
he refl ects her light. He is a foil for her luminosity.
Although this poem functions as another facet in the
speaker’s ultimate plan to get this woman to marry
him, its placement in the larger structure of the SONNET
SEQUENCE—as taking place on Good Friday, March
29—suggests that there may be a second subject, or
addressee, in the poem: Jesus. Read this way, the poem
is the speaker’s contemplation on the nature of Jesus’
sacrifi ce and on humanity’s unworthiness of it. The
reciprocal relationship alluded to in the fi nal couplet,
then, could be the poetic image of that sacrifi ce: the
idea that Jesus became Christ by fi rst becoming human
(“ye stoup unto so lowly [a] state” (l. 12)) and then
dying as a human.
See also AMORETTI (OVERVIEW).
Melissa FeminoAmoretti: Sonnet 67 (“Lyke as a huntsman after
weary chace”) EDMUND SPENSER (1595) Hunting
imagery dominates Sonnet 67. In the fi rst few lines, the
hunting simile—“Lyke as a huntsman”—is converted
to a metaphor with a pun on the word deare (l. 7), and
it remains consistent throughout the poem, which
continues to play extensively with puns on venery
(dear / deer, hart / heart). The OCTAVE describes an
active hunt (the “chace”), while the SESTET concentrates
upon the capture of the “deare.”
Hunting metaphors are common in the love poetry
of 16th-century England. However, in his SONNET,
EDMUND SPENSER adapts this traditional device and20 AMORETTI: SONNET 66