Taylor Svete

Mrs. Smith/ AP British Literature

Part 3: Question 1

10/8/09

A Beloved’s Beauty Beheld in Sonnet 1

In Sonnet 1, Spenser fashions a poem to complement the beauty he sees in his beloved.

This poem complements his beloved’s beauty through the beauty of the poem as well as direct

allusions to his love. He complements her “lamping eyes” (line 6) that “deign sometimes to

look” (6). Spenser also calls her an angel (“When ye behold that angel’s blessed look” (11)) as

well as a goddess. He thinks the book of his love-inspired poetry to be lucky to be held by such

hands as his beloved, and just as she holds the book in her “lily hands” (1), she also holds his life

there too. His love for her is his life, and if she was to reject it, it would be the end of everything

for him. He only cares for her and his poems “seek her to please alone” (13). To Spenser, his

love is a Goddess, as shown in line 10, when he says “Of Helicon whence derived she is.” The

Helicon mountains were the home of the goddesses of art in Greek mythology, and it makes

sense that he should call her a Muse as she is the inspiration to his art “And happy rhymes” (9).

He writes about her with tears as well as happiness because love can do two things to a person,

make them feel either felicitous when they’re with their beloved or hurt when they have to be

separated.