Is Amoretti a love poem? Discuss the idea of love projected by Spenser in it.

Spenser’s poem Amoretti which means “‘little loves” in Italian is a sequence of eighty-nine sonnets that were published in 1595, together with his marriage ode Epithalamion in a single volume. It is believed that Spenser wrote Amoretti for his bride to be Elizabeth Boyle and Zpithalamion (literally meaning “on the bridal bed chamber”) as a celebration of their marriage that is supposed to have taken place in the summer of 1594. Amoretti, in this sense, is a love poem that records the poet’s courtship with Elizabeth Boyle. The poem carries the distinct style of Spenser.

 

As has been suggested earlier, the Petrarchan sonnet was a popular form of love poetry. Spenser, however, did not follow the Petrarchan model. The latter projected an ideal beloved who remained an ever unattainable figure for the pining lover. Spenser was not writing his poems for some unattainable mistress but his beloved and wife to be. He thus wrote of the relationship between the man and the woman as a playful game or as a lover's claim. For Spenser, love was not limited to desire expressed by the lover who would be floored by the beauty of the divine mistress. She was viewed as desirable but also earthly and material as a “deer” (see sonnet 67). In Spenser's scheme of things, love was meant to be realized in attaining a union with the object of affection. However, union with the beloved would be threatened by death and time’s natural course. To counter this, the lover in Spenser displays restlessness as also vouches for his genuine love that he would immortalize in poetry. All the episodes captured in sonnets make Amoretti not an idealistic but a realistic love poem. It may be noted, too, that the poem is presented from the point of view of the male subject. It highlights male desire and fantasy projecting the thrill of chasing the beloved who is seen as an object that needs to be won and possessed. One could also see that the woman in Spenser is wild and not divine. She cannot be tamed by the man unless she wishes to join him out of her own will. She is also the one speaking to the immature lover about mortality and its inevitability. Her philosophical ideas make the poet restless who wishes to leave a mark on the times to come through the act of writing poetry. Thus, the woman subject is shown to be unruly on the one hand, and calm on the other. This duality is an essential attribute of Spenser’s poetry that makes use of oxymoron and paradox to present a more holistic picture of people and things. Lastly, the rhyme scheme used by Spenser in the poem is: ababbcbccdcdee. The frequency of rhymes that repeat makes this verse form a complex one.

 

However, Amoretti is not entirely based on the love experience and its many shades. It projects the predicament of the poet as well. The poem constantly oscillates between Spenser’s private love and public poetic duty towards the nation and the queen. We understand that by the time Spenser was writing the 80° sonnet of Amoretti, he had already completed six books of The Faerie Queen. This suggests that even while writing Amoretti that confesses his love for his fiancée, the poet had in mind his poetic duty towards the country. Even within Amoretti, he displays his dilemma between the private emotion and his public image. With this in view, let’s now take a look at the sonnets in the course followed by an explanation that should help you situate the poem in the overall context of Spenser’s poetry.

 

Spenser celebrates his love for Elizabeth Boyle in FA¥geeg and his marriage to her in Epithalamion; the two were published together in 1595. This was his second marriage. Spenser had been married earlier to one Machabyas Chylde in 1579. He came to England again in 1596 and during this period published the last three books of The Faerie Queene. In 1598, his fortunes reversed as Irish rebels attacked and took in possession his castle of Kilcolman. This happened at a time when Spenser had of late been designated Sheriff of Cork. He came back to England and died in 1599. A contemporary histonan Camden tells us that Spenser was buried in Westminster Abbey near Chaucer’s grave and his funereal was attended by many poets who threw poems in his tomb. This certainly was a tribute to the poet stature in English literature of the time.

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