long been considered one of the fi nest poems in any
genre that deals with the heartbreak of lost love.
Sonnet 61 is written in the ENGLISH SONNET form,
with three QUATRAINs rhyming in an abab scheme and a
fi nal rhyming couplet. It is universally hailed as the
masterpiece achievement of Drayton’s poetic career
and is often considered the best sonnet produced in
Elizabethan times.
See also IDEAS MIRROUR (OVERVIEW).
Michael Cornelius
Ideas Mirrour: Sonnet 63 (“Truce, gentle Love, a
parley now I crave”) MICHAEL DRAYTON (1594)
Sonnet 63, also known as “Amour LXIII,” was the 55th
poem in the 1599 collection called Ideas Mirrour, but it
was renumbered to the 63rd and last piece by the fi nal
edition of 1619. The entire SONNET SEQUENCE concerns
the poet’s love for and unswerving dedication to a woman
he calls Idea, a woman who has been identifi ed by critics
as Lady Anne Rainsford, a childhood friend of the
author’s.
In Sonnet 63, the fi nal SONNET in the sequence,
MICHAEL DRAYTON compares love to war and offers a
“truce” to “gentle Love”—“a parley now I crave, /
Methinks ’tis long since fi rst these wars begun” (ll. 1–2).
Though Drayton has failed in his amorous endeavors, he
declares the confl ict a draw: “Nor thou nor I the better
yet can have; / Bad is the match where neither party won”
(ll. 4–5). Drayton’s suggestion that neither party was the
winner in the affair offers critics interesting speculation
on the exact nature of his relationship with Lady Anne
Rainsford—the Idea of the title—suggesting perhaps that
his lady returns to her husband only out of wifely duty.
Still, it is more likely that Drayton is rationalizing a draw
out of defeat: Having been rejected by Idea, he cannot
face the heartbreak he now must endure. The point is
almost moot, since the sonnet is written not to Idea but
to Love itself, and Drayton’s gently jocular proposal for a
truce with Love resembles a defi ant cry for Love to release
the author from his bonds: “... if no thing but death will
serve thy turn” (l. 9). “Gentle Love” has become an enemy
to the author: “Do what thou canst, rase, massacre, and
burn, / Let the world see the utmost of thy hate” (ll. 11–
12). Drayton’s fi nal message of defi ance suggests that,
though the sonnet sequence is over, the author’s battle
with Love will never be complete.
Sonnet 63 is written in the ENGLISH SONNET form,
with three QUATRAINs rhyming in an abab scheme, fol-
lowed by a fi nal rhyming COUPLET. The poem represents
a strong and apt ending to the author’s ruminations
about the nature of love.
See also IDEAS MIRROUR (OVERVIEW).
Michael CorneliusIDEA THE SHEPHEARDS GARLAND
(AMOURS) MICHAEL DRAYTON (1593, revised
1606) Idea the Shepheards Garland is a series of nine
ECLOGUEs, or PASTORAL poems. The nine poems repre-
sent the nine Muses, and MICHAEL DRAYTON organized
his piece so that the fi rst four eclogues are joined with
the last four, causing the text to come full circle and
thus resemble, in spirit, a garland adorning a lover’s
neck. The individual poems also represent different
genres within the pastoral tradition, including pastoral
ELEGY, eulogy, and debate.
Idea the Shepheards Garland was inspired by EDMUND
SPENSER’s The SHEPHEARDES CALENDER (1579), but the
piece eschews the typical Renaissance moralizing often
found in pastorals and instead focuses on the author’s
own woes with love, interspersed with praise to other
noted fi gures. For instance, the third eclogue is in
praise of Queen ELIZABETH I, while the fourth is a
lament for SIR PHILIP SIDNEY, and the sixth laments sev-
eral departed worthies of England, including MARY SID-
NEY HERBERT, countess of Pembroke.
FURTHER READING
Brink, Jean R. Michael Drayton Revisited. Boston: Twayne,
1990.
Buxton, John, ed. The Poems of Michael Drayton. Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1953.
Elton, Oliver. Michael Drayton: A Critical Study. New York:
Russell & Russell, 1966.
Michael Cornelius“I FIND NO PEACE, AND ALL MY
WAR IS DONE” (“DESCRIPTIONS OF
THE CONTRARIOUS PASSIONS IN A
LOVER”) SIR THOMAS WYATT (1557) This SONNET,“I FIND NO PEACE, AND ALL MY WAR IS DONE” 225