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| (Edmund Spenser 1552-1599) |
Today I would like to propose another Elizabethan poet, Edmund Spenser. The poem I have chosen is Sonnet LXVII. The sonnet belongs to the sequence entitled Amoretti, in which Spenser tells the story of his love for Elizabeth Boyle, from his initial courtship to her final acceptance of his love. In this sonnet Spenser tells us that, being tired of his long courtship, he was losing hope of winning her love when, unexpectedly, the lady suddenly accepted him. The events are told through images of a deer that he is hunting. The deer is a symbol for his coveted lady. When the poet/huntsman loses all hope of concluding a successful hunt, the deer appears to him and lets itself be caught. The general tone of the sonnet is not one of chase and frenzied hunt, but one of calm and peace.
The love that Spenser celebrates in his Amoretti is different from the typical love described in the more conventional sonnets of the time. Spenser in fact does not describe passionate or ardent love, but a chaste and pure one, which culminates in a pure ethereal love.
Like as a huntsman after weary chase,Seeing the game from him escap'd 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 return'd 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 beguil'd.
