EARL OF SURREY’s other lyric poetry, was published post-
humously in 1547 in TOTTEL’S MISCELLANY, thus making
it impossible to date accurately. The publisher took the
liberty of giving it a title, “Description of Spring,
Wherein Every Thing Renews, Save Only the Lover,”
but modern editions prefer the above.
The poem combines medieval English constructions
found in ACCENTUAL VERSE with its original Petrarchan
verse, while still rendering a thoroughly early modern
desiring subject. Adapted from the 310th sonnet of
PETRARCH’s Canzoniere, the poem takes the setting of
the original and replaces it with an English rather than
Italian summertime scene. In its depiction of an Eng-
lish summer scene, the ideal LOCUS AMOENUS has more
in common with medieval lyric poetry such as “SUMER
IS ICUMEN IN” and GEOFFREY CHAUCER’s GENERAL PRO-
LOGUE TO THE CANTERBURY TALES than the Italian sum-
mer of Petrarch’s creation. The simplicity of the rhyme
scheme is appropriated from medieval sources and
forced into the 14-line sonnet format—abab, abab,
abab, aa.
The poem is formally a list-sonnet, with each line of
the fi rst 12 representing some new part of the list to be
described. It relies heavily on ALLITERATION in its
description of spring: “bud and bloom forth brings” (l.
1), “The hart hath hung his old head” (l. 6), “adder all
her slough away she slings” (l. 9). The heavy accentual
rhythm of lines like “The buck in brake his winter coat
he slings,” (l. 7) is reminiscent of the driving rhythms
of MIDDLE ENGLISH LYRICS AND BALLADS. Also, the use of
word forms that were already becoming outdated such
as soote, eke, and the adjective smale, conjures a sense
of nostalgia. Even the use of the often overlooked pun
in “mings” is reliant on an older, almost forgotten
meaning which was “to remember” as well as “to mix.”
It is ironic that Surrey employs these archaic poetic
devices to describe the spring wherein all that is old is
renewed.
The oscillation between present and past tense of
the verbs in the sonnet (“brings,” “clad,” “sings,” “told,”
etc.) is indicative of the subject’s inability to deal with
the absence of his object of desire, as expressed in the
COUPLET. The isolated subject is able to observe the
change and growth that spring suggests but is unable
to join in it himself. As time moves forward, so his
“sorrow springs” (l. 14), which marks the end of the
alternating pattern as well as a verb and a pun that
sums up the sonnet’s enterprise. The fi nal couplet,
whose verbs are in the present tense, locates the sub-
ject desires in the past, for the renewal of all things
means the loss of all things of old. Surrey’s deliberate
use of archaic vocabulary intensifi es these changes and
emphasizes the sense of loss while refocusing the emo-
tion inward.
Andrew BretzSOUTHWELL, ROBERT (ca. 1561–1595)
Hailing from a gentry family, Robert Southwell was
born in Norfolk, one of the places where Catholicism
prevailed even under ELIZABETH I. The exact date of his
birth is unknown, but he claimed that he was 33 when
he stood trial in February 1595. In 1576, Southwell
was sent to school in Douai, France, a refuge for exiled
English Catholics. From here he went to the Jesuit col-
lege of Clermont in Paris. In 1577 he applied to enter
the Jesuit order, and in 1578 he went to Rome, where
he remained for several years.
In 1585, an Act of Parliament barred those English
citizens who had been abroad since Elizabeth’s acces-
sion to the throne from returning to England, and
Catholicism was formally outlawed in England. It was
illegal to attend mass or go to confession, to be a priest
or to assist a priest. As all of these actions constituted
treason, they were punishable by death. Nevertheless,
in 1586 Southwell embarked on a secret mission to
England with another Jesuit, Henry Garnet. The two
priests remained at large for several years, acquiring a
certain reputation for missionary zeal. Richard Top-
cliff, one of Queen Elizabeth’s priest hunters, was par-
ticularly eager to capture Southwell, which he did on
June 25, 1592. Southwell endured torture, depriva-
tion, and imprisonment in the TOWER OF LONDON, but
he never betrayed any of his fellow Catholics. He was
fi nally executed on February 21, 1595. Southwell was
beatifi ed by Pope Pius XI in 1929.
Southwell’s poetry tends toward the didactic and
meditative. It dates from the period of July 1586, his
return to England, until his arrest in 1592. His only
long poem, Saint Peter’s Complaint, is a monologue in422 SOUTHWELL, ROBERT