Asterisked terms should be looked up in HTL if the student isn't certain of their technical sense in literary criticism.

General Notes & Questions

G1. In the eighty-eight sonnets and four anacreonta* comprising the Amoretti, how are Spenser's temperament and outlook and value system revealed to be quite different from Wyatt's, Surrey's, or Sidney's in their sonnets? (See NNERL.) (Note that numbering of Spenser's sonnets can be tricky, since in the original edition, and some subsequent collected editions, one of the sonnets was printed twice [35 = 88], and whether an editor or critic counts the duplicated sonnet may cause variation in number references; certainty can be established by checking the first- line-title of the sonnet.)

G2. (a) What thematic or characterizational effects does Spenser's patented <Spenserian rhyme scheme>* have in his sonnets, individually and collectively? (b) How does Spenser's grammar or syntax frequently demarcate or delineate (in more than one sense of the latter word) structural units in his sonnets?

G3. (G3a) How do Amoretti 1 ("Happy ye leaves"), 54 ("Of this worlds Theatre"), 74 ("Most happy letters"), and 75 ("One day I wrote her name") all have metapoetic elements? (G3b) Which of the Amoretti in NAEL7 have definite religious or spiritual elements?

Specific Notes & Questions

S1. Amoretti Sonnet 1: "Happy ye leaves" (1a) How is the structure notably and noticeably the English sonnet form (in contrast, how is the structure of Sonnet 34 noticeably the Italian form?), as well as highly logical (particularly with reference to the couplet)? (1b) What is the (ubiquitous English Renaissance) pun on leaves(1)? What are imagistic connections (connections between various images) in the first quatrain? In the second? In the third? Between quatrains? (1c) How does the poem have a definite 4-4-4-2 structure? How does the first line of the concluding couplet summarize, in order, the preceding three quatrains? What is the underlying order or organization of the three quatrains? Why leaves, lines, and "rymes" in that order? (1c) How does the repeated figure of speech apostrophe work to convey something about the speaker, his emotional or psychological or social state? (1d) Where and how are moral or religious overtones conveyed in this (little) love sonnet? (1e) Where in line 8 is the line loaded with stresses, and to convey what themes or aspects of character or emotional state? What <metrical substitutions>* occur in line 8?

S2. Amoretti Sonnet 34: "Lyke as a ship" (2a) An NAEL footnote to the sonnet suggests a comparison of this sonnet with Wyatt's "My galley [charged with forgetfulness]," since both sonnets are based on Petrarca's Rima 189. How, indeed, do the two sonnets compare and contrast, and how is each sonneteer's voice, temperament, and value system revealed to be somewhat different from the other's? (2b) How does this sonnet by Spenser have a discernible Italian form or structure of octave and sestet? (2c) What word in line 14 activates a faint pun on wander and wonder in line 13, and what ideas or themes are conveyed thereby?

S3. Amoretti Sonnet 37: "What guyle is this" (3a) How does this sonnet by Spenser have a discernible Italian form or structure of octave and sestet? (3b) How does the recurrent imagery of some Renaissance love poetry -- and the love songs of some popular music of the twentieth century -- of bondage occur in this sonnet, and what themes or ideas does it convey? How is the reference to gold in the sonnet possibly related to the idea of entrapment? (2c) How is a faint pun on hearts and harts activated in line 8 by way of the snare - trap - net imagery? (3d) How does this sonnet convey a religious or philosophical emphasis on perception? How does this emphasis pervade Book 1 of Spenser's Faerie Queene?

S4. Amoretti Sonnet 54: "Of this worlds Theatre" (4a) What metapoetic elements does this sonnet have, and what ideas are conveyed, respectively, about art vs. life? (4b) How are the ideas about theater expressed in the poem related to one of the seminal works of twentieth- century sociology, Erving Goffman's The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life? (4c) How does this sonnet compare in its extended metaphor with the same or similar one in Walter Ralegh's "What is our life?" (NAEL7 879- 880)? (4d) How does this sonnet have a distinctly Italian form of octave and sestet? (4e) How might there be a lurking or latent pun on "eye" and "I" in line 9? How might this pun or image connect to the image of the "senseless stone" in line 14?

S5. Amoretti Sonnet 64: "Comming to kisse her lyps" (5a) How does this sonnet compare or contrast with the "baiser" or "kiss" sonnets of Sidney's Astrophil and Stella? (5b) How does the poem relate to Sidney's Astrophil and Stella 9 ("Queen Virtue's court, which some call Stella's face") and the English Renaissance anatomical catalog poem? How does the poem compare to Thomas Campion's "There is a garden in her face" (NAEL7 1199)? (5c) How might the structure of the poem be tripartite, with the first part being lines 1-4, the second part being lines 5-12, and the third part being lines 13-14? (5d) How does this sonnet have a kind of basic syn(a)esthesia*? How might this syn(a)esthesia help refine or spiritualize the anatomical catalog?

S6. Amoretti Sonnet 67: "Lyke as a huntsman after weary chace" (6a) How does this sonnet very much differ from Wyatt's "Whoso List to Hunt," which makes a natural comparison-contrast, as suggested by the NAEL footnote to Amoretti 67? (6b) This sonnet, as other NAEL selections has the key repeated word, among the Amoretti, of "hand"; what might be the implications of this repetition of the word among the sonnets?

 S7. Amoretti Sonnet 68: "Most glorious Lord of lyfe" (7a) How is this sonnet much more overtly religious than any of the other sonnets covered so far in the course? (7b) How does the speaker or Spenser adapt or apply the religious element to a love poem?

S8. Amoretti Sonnet 74: "Most happy letters fram'd" (8a) How does the number of Elizabeths referred to in the poem (no Sanford and Son television jokes here) have an underlying religious symbolism (think of this number in Dante and in the middle ages)? (8b) Why does the speaker or Spenser put the Elizabeths in the order that he does? (8c) How does the last Elizabeth get significantly more space or proportion in the poem, and why?

S9. Amoretti Sonnet 75: "One day I wrote her name upon the strand" (9a) How does this poem parallel or contrast or both the metapoetic sonnets of Daniel, Drayton, and Shakespeare? (9b) How does the sonnet make an interesting comparison-contrast with the masterpiece of music immortalized in the 1950's, "Love Letters in the Sand"?