In past poetry, love and romance has been interpreted in many ways but mainly in a form known as sad and heartbreaking experiences. During the sixteenth century and times before that, many authors expressed love as gloomy and also wrote in the favor of men. Two interesting portrayals of love are in the sonnet “They Flee From Me” by Thomas Wyatt and collection of sonnets “Amoretti” by Edmund Spencer. In these poems, love is described mostly in two opposite ways. While “They Flee From Me” portrays men as the victim to women and their deviousness, “Amoretti” takes an opposing turn from how most poetry of that time wrote about love by celebrating it in a positive and joyful way.
“Amoretti” was a change and very different from most writings about love which expressed either death or dismay and Spencer talks about it as the most joyful experience . Because of this it’s safe to say no one dies, is severely depressed, overcome with jealousy, or vengeance. The inspiration for “Amoretti” is Spenser’s experiences obtaining his wife and the love tale between the two before their marriage. These poems provide thoughts and visions of love as exciting, joy-filled, and most importantly a pleasure to be in. For example, “And in the heavens wryte your glorious name. Where whenas death shall subdew, Our love shall live, and later life renew”, in this quote they say how there love will last forever (477). However, there is slight little conflict between the two lovers but all is solved just to make their bond stronger. This shows in this quote, ” Yet hope I well, that when this storme is past My Helice the lodestar of my lyfe Will shine again, and look on me at last,”(476). In those lines, the narrator hopes the storm between him and his lover will...
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... uses him and his feelings to become dominant over him. However, “Amoretti” contrasts by speaking of love in a positive and joyful way. Neither way completely defines a love relationship. It’s good that interpretations of love were diverse like these two sonnets, because there are all types of relationships when it comes to love. From these it can also be learned what love truly is more so from “Amoretti” but also what negative prospects to look out for in “They Flee From Me”. The real question is what is love to you, how do you view it, and how does it affect your life?
Works Cited
Spenser, Edmund. “Amoretti.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Gen. ed. StephanGreenbalt. 9th ed. New York: Norton, 2013. 475-477
Wyatt, Thomas. “They Flee From Me” The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Gen. ed. StephanGreenbalt. 9th ed. New York: Norton, 2013. 385
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Physical separation is a powerful obstacle that is sometimes faced by those bound to each other in love. It brings about intense emotional pain and can hinder any relationship with which true love is at its core. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 56 involved two lovers that experienced physical separation as a stumbling block in their kinship. The “sad interim” with which the lovers found themselves suffering caused the intensity of their love to vanish. With their love fading quickly, the two desired for “sweet love” to “renew thy force.” They wanted their love for each other to be “blunter be than appetite, / Which but today by feeding is allayed, / Tomorrow sharpened in his former might.” They wished for a love like hunger, constantly returning and needing to be quenched. However, due to their separation, the people’s “spirit of love” had become “a perpetual dullness.” The “hungry eyes” of their love would “wink with fullness” and had lost its potency and strength. In order to repair the love that had waned, the lovers longed to “Come daily to the banks” of the ocean so that the “Return of love” could come to their relationship, and they desired “this sad interim” to be “winter, which being full of care / Makes summer’s welcome thrice more wish’d.” Sonnet 56 was a sad story in which separation caused two people’s love to become dull and boring. The obstacle of separation was also evident in the relationship between Hero and Claudio found in the play, Much Ado About Nothing. At the beginning of the play, Don Pedro and some of his men returned to Messina after battling in war. One of the men that Don Pedro brought with him was young Claudio. Claudio was highly respected in the eyes of Don Pedro and had exceptional war performan...
Sonnet 130 is Shakespeare’s harsh yet realistic tribute to his quite ordinary mistress. Conventional love poetry of his time would employ Petrarchan imagery and entertain notions of courtly love. Francis Petrarch, often noted for his perfection of the sonnet form, developed a number of techniques for describing love’s pleasures and torments as well as the beauty of the beloved. While Shakespeare adheres to this form, he undermines it as well. Through the use of deliberately subversive wordplay and exaggerated similes, ambiguous concepts, and adherence to the sonnet form, Shakespeare creates a parody of the traditional love sonnet. Although, in the end, Shakespeare embraces the overall Petrarchan theme of total and consuming love.
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In “Sonnet XVII,” the text begins by expressing the ways in which the narrator does not love, superficially. The narrator is captivated by his object of affection, and her inner beauty is of the upmost significance. The poem shows the narrator’s utter helplessness and vulnerability because it is characterized by raw emotions rather than logic. It then sculpts the image that the love created is so personal that the narrator is alone in his enchantment. Therefore, he is ultimately isolated because no one can fathom the love he is encountering. The narrator unveils his private thoughts, leaving him exposed and susceptible to ridicule and speculation. However, as the sonnet advances toward an end, it displays the true heartfelt description of love and finally shows how two people unite as one in an overwhelming intimacy.
The Norton Anthology: English Literature. Ninth Edition. Stephen Greenblatt, eds. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. 460. Print.
Therefore, because William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18” and Edmund Spenser’s “Sonnet 75” share the idea that love is sincere and eternal, they can be looked upon as similar in theme. However, although similar in theme, Shakespeare’s intent is portraying the true everlasting beauty of his love, which is already achieved, whereas Spenser concentrates more on trying to entice his desired love, remaining optimistic throughout the entire poem.
During the course of Edmund Spencer’s Amoretti, the “Petrarchan beloved certainly underwent a transformation” (Lever 98); the speaker depicts the beloved as merciless and is not content with being an “unrequited lover” (Roche 1) as present in a Petrarchan sonnet. Throughout Sonnet 37 and Sonnet 54, the speaker provides insight into the beloved not seen within the Petrarchan sonnets; though the speaker does present his uncontrollable love for the beloved, he does so through his dissatisfaction with his position and lack of control. In Sonnet 37, the speaker describes the beloved as an enchantress who artfully captures the lover in her “golden snare” (Spencer, 6) and attempts to warn men of the beloved’s nature. Sonnet 54, the speaker is anguished by the beloved’s ignorance towards his pain and finally denies her humanity. Spencer allows the speaker to display the adversarial nature of his relationship with the beloved through the speaker’s negative description of the beloved, the presentation of hope of escaping from this love, and his discontent with his powerlessness. Spencer presents a power struggle and inverted gender roles between the lover and the beloved causing ultimate frustration for the speaker during his fight for control.
Romeo and Juliet have very different attitudes towards love. Their beliefs to this romance constructs a thick line between the themes if love is of beauty or if “love is blind…”(3.2.9). The romance of the two