Amoretti Sonnet 30

Amoretti (Sonnet 30)

Ted Santos

Western Governors University

Amoretti (Sonnet 30) is a very interesting poem because it is very thought provoking.   The author compared the emotions of two individuals in contrast, yet they are somehow still connected in some way.  The storyteller in the poem is hopelessly in love with a woman who does not have the exact feeling that he has for her.  Even though he constantly shows her and reminds her of how much love he has for her, she still pushes him away further and turns a blind eye to his perseverance.  This poem conveys the power of love, of how it can alter the senses and perception of each individuals toward a certain someone with emotions that can stimulate a sense of euphoria and disdain.  The hopelessness of the following quotation caught my attention.  “How comes it then that this her cold so great?  Not matter how he tries.  How can this fire in his heart be so senseless in her cold, icy heart”?   (Spenser, 1901).

As the Renaissance period started in Italy and slowly spreaded throughout Europe.  Many individuals saw that the revival of classical learning is a must, which the led to a new and more diverse public audience.  This audience whose interest and perception were wider, demanded bigger variety in content and artistic form.  The accumulation of wealth in cities is a significance of Renaissance urbanization, which helped fund patronage for the arts.  The spirit of the new life was nourished especially by the air of the great cities. Also during this era, in speaking of mediaeval town living we noticed how within the towns there was early development of a life like that of modern times. The atmosphere of these bustling, trafficking cities called into existence a practical commercial spirit, a many-sided, independent, secular life which in many respects was directly opposed to medieval teachings and ideals (Schitker, Peporte, & Lee, 2010).

     Edmund Spenser (1552-1599), was an English poet.  He was proficient in French, not taught at his school, by the time he was seventeen years old, since at that age he translated into English the poems from the French edition of Jan van der Noodt's anti-papal farrago.  The Faery Queen is one of his most publicized books.  Amoretti (sonnet 30) is one of the 89 sonnets he wrote.  It was conceived during his courtship and eventual marriage to Elizabeth Boyle.  He is a very well-educated Englishman.  It is in his sonnets he succeeded in illustrating the name of his wife to be by devices of word play.  Even though he’s style of writing is not revered by most people during his era the writings of Spenser represent the meeting between long-standing tradition and new experiment; and his Humanism, though largely derivative, was not circumscribed by the dictates of any one school.  “Spenser was the Virgil, or prince of poets, of his time, and his time was golden.”.  He is truly a renaissance man of literature (Herron, 2015).  

     Renaissance literature experimented with a wide range of styles that reflected an emphasis on the individual's psychological complexity in addition to the social and moral structures of society that were more often the focus of medieval literature. There were, for instance, those who objected to the use of rhyme. Such critics usually cited the example of classical ‘quantitative’ verse.  The sonnets that he created reflected the philosophical and political questions that were raised by the revival of classical culture.  He had shown great articulation of humanism.  On how love is perceived physically and emotionally.   He had also shown the traits of individualism.  He expressed the sense of longing and desire to achieve his goal.  (Keenan, 2008)