Amoretti

By: Edmund Spenser

Presenter:Dianne P. Villanueva
Background
of the
Author
Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser was born around the year 1552
to a rather middle class family. His origins are not
known for certain, however he is thought to be the
son of John Spenser of East Smithfield. As a boy,
Edmund studied at the Merchant Taylors’ school
until he matriculated to Pembroke Hall (today
known as Pembroke College) in Cambridge.  After
taking his B.A. and M.A. Spenser left Cambridge in
1570 and went to Kent where he worked as a
secretary. In 1580 Spenser was appointed
secretary of Arthur and relocated to Ireland. After
reading his draft of The Faerie Queen, Sir Walter
introduced Spenser to Elizabeth Boyle in 1590.
After returning to Kilcolman, Spenser courted and
proceeded to marry Elizabeth, for whom Amoretti is
dedicated. 
EDMUND SPENSER’S AMORETTI

Edmund Spenser’s famous collection of

sonnets, Amoretti, is a series of love sonnets
dedicated to Elizabeth Boyle, the lady of his
dreams whom he pursues and eventually marries
in 1594. The term “amoretti” is literally defined as
“little loves” or “little cupids.” Spenser closely
follows many conventions of the Elizabethan
sonnets, but in some ways his sonnets deviate
from the norm for this era. For instance, many
Elizabethan sonnets call on the idea of the Muses,
the mythological Greek goddesses that provided
inspiration for literature, science, and the arts.
Spenser frequently references the Muses in his
sonnets.
EDMUND SPENCER’S AMORETTI

Back in Ireland, Spenser pressed on with his

writing, in spite of the burdens of his estate. In early
1595 he published Amoretti and Epithalamion.
Amoretti is a sonnet with 89 sequence and
Epithalamion is a marriage ode celebrating his
marriage to Elizabeth Boyle with the structures of
24 stanzas and 365 lines. After what appears to
have been an impassioned courtship in 1594. This
group of poems is unique among Renaissance
sonnet sequences in that it celebrates a successful
love affair culminating in marriage.
 Brief
Recap
Sonnet – One stanza, 14 lyric poem. The sonnet, which
derived from the Italian word sonetto, meaning “a little
sound or song“.
 The most common—and simplest—type is known as
the English or Shakespearean sonnet, with a Pattern
of three quatrain and a couplet. It has a rhyme scheme
of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG but, there are several other
types.

Amoretti - Comprises three quatrains and a final

couplet, with the rhyme scheme ABAB BCBC CDCD EE.

Ode - form of lyric poetry — expressing emotion — and

it's usually addressed to someone or something, or it
represents the poet's music on that person or thing.
Vocabulary
Words
 Vocabulary Words
• Deviate - turn aside; turn away from. The
verb deviate can refer to divergence from a predicted
path or road ("the airplane's route deviated from the flight
plan"), but it can also refer to a divergence from normal
behavior or expectations.

• Forsook – Past tense of “forsake”. To forsake another

person is to leave them entirely, usually in a moment of
need. And/or simply giving something up, such as a way
of life or a homeland, for something better or more
appropriate. 

• Congealed - means "to freeze”. So when something

congeals it goes from liquid to solid form, almost like
freezing.
 Vocabulary Words
• Beguild - Being beguiled is like being captivated,
charmed and delighted. Being beguiled is a nice feeling:
it means you are totally absorbed by something in an
enjoyable way. When you're beguiled, you really like
what you see.

• Quench - means to put out, put an end to, or satisfy.

 Content of
the Literary
Text
Sonnet 30 and 67
Amoretti
SONNET 30
My Love is like to ice, and I to fire:
How comes it then that this her cold so great
Is not dissolved through my so hot desire,
But harder grows the more I her entreat?
Or how comes it that my exceeding heat
Is not allayed by her heart-frozen cold,
But that I burn much more in boiling sweat,
And feel my flames augmented manifold?
What more miraculous thing may be told,
That fire, which all things melts, should harden
ice,
And ice, which is congealed with senseless cold,
Should kindle fire by wonderful device?
Such is the power of love in gentle mind,
That it can alter all the course of kind.
SONNET 67
Like as a huntsman after weary chase,
Seeing the game from him escaped away,
Sits down to rest him in some shady place,
With panting hounds beguiled of their prey:
So after long pursuit and vain assay,
When I all weary had the chase forsook,
The gentle deer returned the self-same way,
Thinking to quench her thirst at the next brook.
There she beholding me with milder look,
Sought not to fly, but fearless still did bide:
Till I in hand her yet half trembling took,
And with her own goodwill her firmly tied.
Strange thing, me seem'd, to see a beast so wild,
So goodly won, with her own will beguiled.
Analysis
of the
Literary
Text
 Sonnet 30

Through the literary manipulation of simile and word connotation in this poem,
the author revealed his thoughts on love and the meaning of his poem as a whole.
The simile of the speaker being fire and his lover being ice carries throughout the
poem, and the author elaborates on the idea that even though they should destroy
each other, her ice only makes his fire stronger, which reveals his confused yet
appreciative attitude toward love. Furthermore, the word connotation in the poem
symbolized the speaker's intense love for his lover, as well as an overall positive
outlook in the poem. The use of these literary elements in the poem, "Sonnet 30"
by Edmund Spenser, convey the overall theme of the poem that love is something
that we will never understand, yet it knows no bounds, not even the laws of nature
can limit it, but it is beautiful and we should be grateful for it.
 Sonnet 67

The poem is written in first person. It is a metaphor, comparing the lover to a

hunter and the beloved to a deer. The poet compares the lover to a hunter
pursuing a deer unsuccessfully. When the lover/ hunter sits down to rest, tired from
the extended chase, the deer returns to drink at a brook.
This suggests that perhaps in love, aggressive pursuit is not the only successful
technique; instead, the beloved needs to consent of her own free will.
References
https://
www.britannica.com/biography/Ed
mund-Spenser

https://
www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/e
dmund-spenser

https://sites.udel.edu/britlitwiki/the-
elizabethan-sonnet-sequence
/
THANK YOU
COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION
BSED III