http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/amoretti.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwBVLumAlg8
amoretti and epithalamion analysis
http://www.gradesaver.com/spensers-amoretti/study-guide/section7/
HAPPY ye leaues when as those lilly hands,
which hold my life in their dead doing might
shall handle you and hold in loues soft bands,
lyke captiues trembling at the victors sight.
And happy lines, on which with starry light,
those lamping eyes will deigne sometimes to look
and reade the sorrowes of my dying spright,
written with teares in harts close bleeding book.
And happy rymes bath'd in the sacred brooke,
of Helicon whence she deriued is,
when ye behold that Angels blessed looke,
my soules long lacked foode, my heauens blis.
Leaues, lines, and rymes, seeke her to please alone,
whom if ye please, I care for other none.
The poet addresses his poetry, entreating them to please his beloved alone, for “I care for other none” (line 14)
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/scriptorium/2008/08/leaves-lines-and-rymes-spensers-amoretti-1/
entreat, appeal,
Sonnet 2
“Unquiet Thought” is addressed in the first line, referring either to his poetry (as he did in Sonnet 1) or to his restless and strong emotions for his beloved. Either way, he wants this inner emotion to “Breake forth…out of the inner part” (line 5) to reach his beloved. There, “unquiet thought” should bow before her seeking her acknowledgement. With her reaction to his poetry, he will live or die.
Sonnet 3
The poet admires his “souerayne beauty” (his beloved), comparing her to a light of heavenly fire that he cannot endure to look upon for long. Speech fails him, so he turns to writing (poetry) to express “the wonder that my wit cannot endite.” (line 14)
endite = indite = compose, draft, frame,
Sonnet 4
Set on the day of the New Year (March 25th by Elizabethan practice), this sonnet draws a comparison between old and new, winter and spring, and death and life. While focusing on the whole world’s change from old to new, in context the poet could easily be setting the stage to kindle his beloved’s passion for him to life.
kindle, ignite, light, set afire,
Sonnet 5
The speaker defends his beloved’s pride, stating that her “lofty looks” demonstrate a mind set upon higher matters than the “base things” of this world. He finishes by arguing that her pride is a natural element of anything in this world that is worth pursuing.
Sonnet 6
The speaker explicates the meaning of the final couplet in Sonnet 5, explaining how the hardest-won prizes are the most valuable. He uses the example of an oak tree, the wood of which is difficult to chop for firewood, but which burns long and bright once it is obtained. Just as it takes perseverance and strength to obtain oak firewood, so will the precious and abiding love of his beloved be obtained only through toil and patience.
couplet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Couplet
toil, work, labor
Sonnet 7
This sonnet focuses on the beloved’s eyes, an image that will reoccur throughout the Amoretti. Her eyes send forth both life and death, because her gaze can inspire him to love when it is favorable, and emotionally destroy him “as one with lightning fyred” (line 8) when it is harsh. He concludes that the life-giving aspect of her gaze is the “honor of [her] light” (line 13), while the deadly looks are a “sad ensample of [her] might” (line 14).
crystal gazing 水晶球占卜術 http://www.pinterest.com/pin/202380576977293331/
Sonnet 8
The light of his beloved’s fire, mentioned in the previous sonnet, is used to show how the speaker cherishes his beloved. Addressing her directly, he tells her how her beauty stops his tongue but teaches his “hart to speake” (line 10); she is the inspiration for these poems, which are the only way he can express his love for her. He holds her beauty to be universal, for “Dark is the world, where your light shined neuer;/well is he borne that may behold you euer” (lines 13-14).
Sonnet 9
The speaker returns to describing his beloved’s eyes, the light of which illuminates his spirit (line 2). He then lists all the bright and beautiful things that cannot compare to her eyes: the Sun, the Moon, the stars, fire, lightning, diamond, crystal, and glass. He concludes that only to “the Maker selfe” (God) is a fit comparison for her eyes, because his “light doth ligten all that here we see” (line 14).
Sonnet 10
This is the first sonnet in which the speaker openly criticizes his beloved. Calling her a “Tyrannesse,” (line 5), the speaker laments the joy she takes in bringing pain to those (particularly himself) who love her. He calls upon the “Lord of loue” to shake her “proud hart” (lines 1 and 9), although it is unclear whether he is addressing God or a personification of love, such as Cupid. He prays for a reckoning which will allow him to laugh at her as much as she “doth laugh at me & makes my pain her sport” (line 14).
Sonnet 11
The speaker describes his love and his beloved’s rejection in terms of a battle metaphor. He claims to daily “sew for peace” (sue for peace, line 1) and offer her hostages (line 2), but she continues the fighting. He describes her as a warrior (line 3) and his own life as her spoil (line 8). He wants peace with her—which entails her confessing love for him—but she refuses to acknowledge any feelings for him, thus keeping the “weary war” (line 4) going. The poet uses irony in describing her giving in to feelings for him as his own surrender, while her constant resistance to his repeated words of love as an act of aggression.
