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Building BackgroundThe Time and PlaceSpenser wrote these sonnets in Ireland, where he served in the English administration of that troubled country. The sonnets were published in 1595.
Amoretti was probably about his courtship of Elizabeth, whom he married in 1594. The sonnet sequence relates his love for a woman, but unlike other sonnet writers of the time, he wrote about a courtship that culminated in marriage. The sonnets follow a narrative sequence and tell the story of a turbulent romance. Sonnet 30 and Sonnet 75, which you will be reading, are from the Amoretti sonnet sequence. Both exemplify the Spenserian sonnet form, which he invented. Poetic form: Spenserian sonnet The Spenserian sonnetis a variation on the English sonnet, which was introduced in Britain by Sir Thomas Wyatt in the 1530s. Like the English (or Shakespearean) sonnet, the Spenserian sonnet consists of three four-line units, called quatrains,followed by two rhymed lines, called a couplet. Each quatrain addresses the poem’s main idea, thought, or question, and the couplet provides an answer or summation. What is unique to the Spenserian sonnet is the interlocking rhyme scheme(abab bcbc cdcd ee) that links the three quatrains. As you read the following Spenser sonnets, notice the rhymes that connect one quatrain to the next, and the way in which the sonnet’s main idea is developed and resolved. Reading skill: summarize major ideas in poetry When you summarizea poem, you briefly restate the main ideas or themes in your own words. Summarizing a sonnet’s major ideas can help you understand and remember what you read, especially when the text or language is particularly complicated or difficult to understand. You can break down each quatrain and the couplet and use your own words to summarize the meaning of each part. For each Spenser sonnet, use a chart like the one shown to help you summarize the major ideas in each part of the poem.
After Reading Comprehension: Recall and Interpret 1.In Sonnet 30, to what does the speaker compare his beloved’s feelings? To what does he compare his own? What do these comparisons indicate about the speaker’s feelings and the way the speaker’s beloved feels about him? 2.In Sonnet 30, paraphrase the question the speaker asks in lines 5–8. What does this question indicate about the speaker’s love? 3.In Sonnet 30, what paradox, or contradiction, does the speaker point out in lines 9–12? 4.In Sonnet 30, at what point in this sonnet does the poet answer or resolve the problem described? What is his answer to the questions he asks? 5.In Sonnet 75, What happens to the name the speaker writes on the sand? What does the speaker do then? 6.In Sonnet 75, how does the speaker’s beloved respond to what happens? What do you think she means by what she says? 7. In Sonnet 75, how does the speaker answer his loved one? How do his views about immortality differ from hers? Support your response with details from the poem. 8.In Sonnet 75, what does the end of the sonnet suggest about the power of poetry? Literary Analysis: Evaluate 9. Examine Spenserian SonnetReread lines 13–14 of Sonnet 30. Does this couplet suggest that the speaker has overcome the heartacheexpressed in the preceding quatrains? Support your answer. 10. Analyze ToneWhat does the tone, or attitude, of Sonnet 75 suggest about the speaker’s relationship with his beloved? 11. Draw ConclusionsIn these two sonnets, how would you characterize the speaker’s views about the following? • a beloved woman (Sonnet 75, lines 9–12) • romantic love (Sonnet 30, lines 13–14; Sonnet 75, lines 13–14) • the value of his poetry (Sonnet 75, lines 11–14) 12. Compare TextsIn Sonnet 75, Spenser allows the speaker’s lover to respond directly to the speaker. Compare her statements with those of the nymph in Raleigh’s The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd (page 104). In what ways are their responses similar? Literary Criticism 13. Critical InterpretationsThe poet John Hollander has written that some literary scholars have found Spenserian sonnets“somewhat syrupy beside Shakespeare.” Do you think most contemporary readers would consider these sonnets by Spenser “syrupy”? Cite examples from the sonnets to support your answer. 14. Writing About LiteratureWrite two or three paragraphs about the images of fire and ice in Sonnet 30 and the images of land and water in Sonnet 75. Why might Spenser have chosen these particular images? How does he use them to express the ideas and emotions of the speaker and his love? Answer these questions and express your opinion of the effectiveness of these images. 15. Creative WritingIn Sonnet 75, the speaker wants to immortalize his sweetheart in a poem. Imagine it is fifty years in the future, and a news reporter is trying to immortalize you. From the point of view of the reporter, write a newspaper or magazine article about your life. Include the achievements and traits for which you would most like to be remembered. Reading Focus III. Shakespeare’s Poetry KEY IDEA According to an old saying, “Love is blind,” but to what extent is this true? The thrill of falling in love can cloud one’s perceptions of a lover, but usually those clouds drift away over time. Is it possible to see a person’s faults clearly and still love him or her? Before Reading 1: Meet William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
Humble BeginningsMost of what is known about Shakespeare’s life comes from court and church records. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, a small town in central England. His father was a successful businessman and town official, and his mother inherited farmland from her father. Shakespeare’s family was initially prosperous but began having financial difficulties in the 1570s. Shakespeare probably attended Stratford’s excellent grammar school, where he would have studied Latin and read classical authors. No one knows what Shakespeare did immediately after he left school. In 1582, when he was 18 years old, he married Anne Hathaway, who was 26 years old. Six months later, they had a daughter. In 1585, they had twins, a boy and a girl. Shakespeare’s son died at age 11. Early Success as Actor and PlaywrightSometime around 1590, Shakespeare moved to London and began working as an actor and playwright. He went on to become the most successful playwright of his time, earning enough to buy a large house in Stratford, where his wife and children lived. Although he retired to Stratford around 1612, he continued writing until his death at age 52. Shakespeare the PoetIn addition to his 37 plays, Shakespeare wrote an innovative collection of sonnets and two long narrative poems. In the 1590s, many English poets wrote sonnet sequences, which were usually addressed to an unattainable, idealized woman. Shakespeare expanded the conventions of the sonnet, making the form thematically more complex and less predictable. For example, the object of affection in some of his sonnets is not a divinely beautiful woman but a “dark lady” with all-too-human defects. He also wrote sonnets to an unidentified young man as well as to a rival poet. And while most sonnet writers focused primarily on love and beauty, Shakespeare addressed themes such as time, change, and death. Because of his mastery of the sonnet’s form and his broadening of its content, Shakespeare remains the undisputed master of the English sonnet. Today, the English sonnet is often referred to as the Shakespearean sonnet. While Reading 1 Date: 2016-03-03; view: 2789
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Did You Know?After the death of his first wife, Spenser began courting an Anglo-Irish gentlewoman named Elizabeth Boyle. She was related to Sir Richard Boyle, who later became the first Earl of Cork. She seems to have lived at Kilcoran, near Youghal, on the coast to the southeast of Spenser’s domain. Spenser composed a marriage ode called Epithalamion, which was inspired by the traditional marriage odes written in Latin and French. He also wrote an accompanying series of eighty-nine sonnets, which he called Amoretti, or “little love songs.”