Spenserian sonnet and blends the poet’s love for the
three Elizabeths in his life: his mother, his queen, and
his beloved.
The speaker begins the fi rst quatrain with a PAEAN to
the letters that make up the name of Elizabeth, because
three women bearing that name have made him happy,
giving him gifts “of body, fortune and of mind” (l. 4).
The second quatrain announces that the fi rst gift came
from his mother, who gave him life, while the second
gift came from the queen, who has honored him and
given him riches. The third quatrain is dedicated to his
beloved, who has raised his spirit out of the dust of his
widowhood; therefore, of all the people alive, she is
most deserving of his praise and glorifying. The fi nal
COUPLET, then, hopes that the three Elizabeths might
live forever for giving him those graces.
See also AMORETTI (OVERVIEW).
Peggy J. Huey
Amoretti: Sonnet 75 (“One day I wrote her
name upon the strand”) EDMUND SPENSER (1595)
This SONNET, like the previous one in Amoretti,
addresses the courtship between EDMUND SPENSER and
Elizabeth Boyle. The rhyme scheme follows the linked
quatrain pattern of the Spenserian sonnet, and themat-
ically it plays with the familiar CONCEIT of immortality.
The speaker begins the OCTAVE by setting a scene at
the beach one day, when he writes his beloved’s name
in the sand; however, as is to be expected, the waves
come in and wash the name away. So once again, he
writes the name upon the sand, and once again, the
waves come in and wash it away. The beloved chastises
him for his vanity that would allow him vainly to
attempt to immortalize in this manner someone such
as she, who is mortal, and who eventually will be
wiped out of all memory, just as her name has been
erased from the beach. In the SESTET, however, the
speaker protests the beloved’s self-deprecating assess-
ment of the situation, claiming that she shall live for-
ever because his verses will make her name famous,
and her virtues will make her eternal. Their love will
live on to be renewed in the afterlife when death has
subdued their world.
See also AMORETTI (OVERVIEW).
Peggy J. Huey
Amoretti: Sonnet 79 (“Men call you fayre, and
you doe credit it”) EDMUND SPENSER (1595) Another
of the SONNETs from Amoretti detailing the second year
of the courtship between EDMUND SPENSER and Elizabeth
Boyle, this poem follows the standard Spenserian sonnet
form. The critical consensus is that this poem blends
Christian and Neoplatonic terms to express the poet’s
vision of the force and meaning of love.
The OCTAVE begins with the speaker observing that
men have told his beloved that she is fair, and she
believes them because she can look in the mirror and
see her beauty. However, the truly fair person has a gen-
tle wit and a virtuous mind, two qualities that are much
more deserving of this poet’s praise. Others may be fair
now, but time will change that as they lose those looks;
the only thing that is permanent is that which outlasts
the fl esh, which is revealed in the SESTET. True beauty is
divine, coming from heaven, from the “fayre Spirit” (l.
11) that is the source of perfection. Beauty is within;
everything else fades with time just as fl owers fade.
See also AMORETTI (OVERVIEW).
Peggy J. HueyAmoretti: Sonnet 80 (“After so long a race as I
have run”) EDMUND SPENSER (1595) Like Sonnet
33, Sonnet 80, which is often featured in critiques of
Amoretti that highlight its poetic achievement, contains
direct references to EDMUND SPENSER’s ongoing project
in honor of Queen ELIZABETH I,—that is, The FAERIE
QUEEN. He opens the sonnet by referring to the “long
race”—the narrator’s pursuit of his elusive Lady. How-
ever, Sonnet 80 mostly references the many years the
author has spent on what was to become his magnum
opus. The fi rst three of a projected 12 books of The
Faerie Queene were published in 1590 to great acclaim.
In this context, in Sonnet 80 Spenser announces the
completion of a total of six books. He then ends the
sonnet by identifying the whole SONNET SEQUENCE as
“handmayd” of the Faerie Queene, citing the book by
name. (The edition including books 1–6 was published
the next year, 1596). It is only with the third QUATRAIN
that Spenser readdresses the matter at hand, having
also somewhat trivialized it as “pleasant mew,” a form
of leisurely entertainment to give him a break from the
longer work.22 AMORETTI: SONNET 75