To Althea, from Prison

By Richard Lovelace
When Love with unconfined wings a
Hovers within my Gates, b
And my divine Althea brings a
To whisper at the Grates; b
When I lie tangled in her hair, c
And fettered to her eye, e
The Birds that wanton in the Air, f Independent
Know no such Liberty. e Clause

When flowing Cups run swiftly round g

With no allaying Thames, b
Our careless heads with Roses bound, g
Our hearts with Loyal Flames; b
When thirsty grief in Wine we steep, i
When Healths and draughts go free,
Fishes that tipple in the Deep
Know no such Liberty.

When (like committed linnets) I

With shriller throat shall sing
The sweetness, Mercy, Majesty,
And glories of my King;
When I shall voice aloud how good
He is, how Great should be,
Enlargèd Winds, that curl the Flood,
Know no such Liberty.

Stone Walls do not a Prison make,

Nor Iron bars a Cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for an Hermitage.
If I have freedom in my Love,
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone that soar above,
Enjoy such Liberty.
 The Author:

Richard Lovelace (1618-1657) was a dashing, handsome, well-educated gentleman who, as a soldier and poet,
strongly defended the king during The Bishops' Wars in Scotland (1639-1640) and the English Civil Wars
(1642-1651). He held inherited estates in Kent and freely used his personal resources to support the king's
causes. He became famous as one of the cavalier poets.

Type of Work

"To Althea, From Prison" is a lyric poem on the paradoxical theme of freedom during imprisonment. It was
written in 1642 and published in 1649 in a poetry collection called To Lucasta.

About the poem:

First why it is from prison?
It is from prison because Richard Lovelace is a cavalier poet. In addition, a cavalier poet is a poet to depend a
thing even by his blood, and by his own soul, and own life. Moreover, his love for the king was so much, and
they were faithful for him. So he was in jail because he against the parliament. He was writing several poems
for his lover, but with different names.
So he is dedicating this poem To Althea, From Prison.
Know no such Liberty in each stanza; it is a kind of refrain as in a song to repeat it every time. And to
emphasize his idea by repetition.

Unconfined means restrained ‫مكبل‬

Analyzing the poem:
 Stanza 1
Richard Lovelace here is thrown in jail because of the problems that he had with the parliament, while he was in
prison he was writing his poem to a person he named Althea but actually is not. He said even if he was imprison
in his heart he was free. Why? He says When Love with unconfined wings, Hovers within my Gates it seems that
love comes to his window of the gate to visit him and brings to him his divine Althea to whisper
The poet imagines love that is coming with unconfined wings, coming to his gates, and bringing with him the
divine Althea (Althea his fiancée) her name is Lucy Sacheverell.

Using “When” in the beginning of the poem means that something is going to happen  so it it’s subordinate
clause. It is also a supporting clause

We saw that in this poem Richard is talking about himself because this is a Lyric, and Lyric is subjected in mean.

When he’s saying when I’m in prison, physically being in the jail it doesn’t means that I’m not mentally
restrained, I can still have the ability to think ,I still have the ability to imagine  You can capture my body,
but you can’t capture my imagination, my soul, my mental ability, to think and imagine the way I want. When
you confined me, when you restrain me, when you throw me in prison, Love with unconfined wings hovers
within my gates. (He said unconfined because love cannot be put in shackle and cannot be chain like the way I
am. Therefore, when love comes with its unconfined free wings comes and float on my gates of my prison. And
when it brings divine Althea to me to whisper at the bars of the prison “the Grates”.

Fettered: ‫مكبل‬
 “When I lie tangled in her hair” maybe he is tangled by rope or by chains, “And fettered to her eye” and he is
fettered maybe in cuffs or he is shackled. When loves come and brings Althea with him and by his wings to the
bars of the prison. He is tangled but not tangled with the chains and rope he is tangled in her hair, he is fettered
but he is not fettered by cuffs, he is fettered in her eyes, This is a type of contradiction.
“When I lie tangled in her hair” not in the shackles that they put for me in the jail.
“And fettered to her eye” not in the cuffs that they put in my hands.
- He feels free when he imagined her.
- You can imprison a person by his body but you cannot imprison his imagination, you cannot imprison his soul .

“The Birds that wanton in the Air” the birds that are flying in the sky are not as free Liberty, they are not as free as
I am, I’m more free than them. (the birds doesn’t enjoy the Liberty that I enjoy)

 Stanza 2
“When flowing Cups run swiftly round” swiftly: quicly: ‫برشاقة‬
Usually when they dink rum) Heavy alcohol drink( they usually put some water into it that reduces its severity.

“With no allaying Thames”

Thames: ‫ نهر ال ثايم‬allaying: soothing: ‫يهدئ‬
He means that when he is drinking a wine, and something that is very heavy and potent, and the Thames cannot
smoothed him or changed the flavor or to pure them down.

“Our careless heads with Roses bound” carless heads: ‫ سكرانين‬roses bound: ‫أكاليل من الزهر‬
Their heads were carless, they don’t care what it’s going on, and they are putting roses bound on their heads.

“Our hearts with Loyal Flames” Our hearts are bounds with loyal flames. Loyal support for the King “Charles I”.
Even he is in prison he is imagining how much he is in love with his King.

“When thirsty grief in Wine we steep” grief: ‫ينغمس‬

When the thirsty of sadness goes him down in the wine,

Fishes that tipple in the Deep

Know no such Liberty.
Even the fishes are in the deep oceans swimming, and enjoying their time, even they themselves don’t know its
Liberty. And this is a message don’t thinks that if you put me in a jail physically you can control my mental
state, I’m a free person, I’m freer from the birds that wanton in the air, and freer from the fishes that tipple in
the deep.

 Stanza 3
“When (like committed linnets) I committed linnets: ‫مثل الكنار و الحسون ينحطوا بقفص‬
With shriller throat shall sing
The sweetness, Mercy, Majesty
And glories of my King”
When I am like the committed linnets in the cage restrain in the prison/ when you put me in a cage like a bird
that in prison I will sing from my throat with shriller (higher than) voice than those linnets. And I will sing the
sweetness, the mercy, the majesty, and the glories of my king, (The king’s greatness, mercy, and kindness) “here
he is talking about his love to the king”. Here there is metaphor since when he write there is no sound, but here
his voice is very loud he can hear the voice that is inside the cell (prison). From 300 years till now his sound is
still alive.

“When I shall voice aloud how good

 He is, how Great should be,
Enlargèd Winds, that curl the Flood, curl: ‫بتموج‬
Know no such Liberty”
When he speaks loudly about how great his King is, even the wings that travel from long distance and curl, and
even I’m inside the cell.
Here the speaker compares himself to bird like a songbird trapped in a cage, but for being caged he shall sing
ever louder. His song shall extol the glories of the king to whom he refuses to stop paying fealty even at the cost
of imprisonment. His song shall be loud and the louder he sings about the goodness of the king, the greater his
liberty becomes even though trapped in a prison like the bird.

 Stanza 4
NB: here there is a theme which is very important.

“Stone Walls do not a Prison make,

Nor Iron bars a Cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take innocent: ‫صافي‬
That for an Hermitage”

The stone walls and iron bars that are surrounded by me cannot imprison me. If your mind is innocent and quit,
and if your mind is free and thinking positively this means that they cannot imprison you, even you are thrown
in jail. You feel that you are living in a cave not in a prison

If I have freedom in my Love,

And in my soul am free,
Angels alone that soar above,
Enjoy such Liberty
Here is not necessarily love of Althea it maybe for the King.
Only the angels that fly and soar above knows the freedom that I’m living it. only angles have as much
freedom as I do.

In the poem he speaks about love for Althea and more love for the King and that is the properties of the
cavalier.
No One Can Imprison the Human Mind.

Themes:

1) Freedom and confinement: "To Althea from Prison?" Yep, plenty of confinement in this poem—but
plenty of freedom, too. The speaker doesn't just sit around and bemoan the fact that he's stuck in prison,
however. In fact, the poem is really more about how free the speaker is. Free? But he's in prison? True,
but one of the major themes of the poem is that true freedom is mental. It's all about how you look at it.
The speaker is freer than just about anybody else because his mind—his imagination—is so powerful that
nothing can confine it. Not even some gross, English prison!

2) Loyalty: Richard Lovelace was a big fan of his king, Charles I. "To Althea, from Prison" is as much
about Lovelace's ability to overcome his circumstances as it is about the "loyal flames" that he and his
buddies display for their king. In the third stanza especially, Lovelace describes the king's "sweetness,
mercy, majesty" and says he is not afraid to voice "aloud" his loyalty to His Majesty. As it happens, this
poem came about as a result of Lovelace doing that very thing—for which he was thrown in jail, which is
the setting of this poem… in which he praises his king. It's an endless loop, really.
 3) Love: The poem is addressed to Althea, the love of the speaker's life, and the entire first stanza is about
how his feelings for her help him deal with his situation. "To Althea, from Prison," then, is almost like a
love letter, but it's just not about love for a girlfriend or wife. The speaker refers several times to his love
for his king, and his love of liberty. Clearly, there are many different kinds of love, and they all contribute
to the speaker's ability to handle, or even surpass, his imprisonment.

4) Art and Culture: "To Althea, from Prison" is about prison, about love, about politics, but it's also about
poetry. Song and poetry are often linked in literature, which explains why the speaker says he will sing
even louder than caged birds, and moreover that he will sing about the glories of his king. The poem
implies that poetry—and art more generally—is somehow bound up with the political organization of
one's country. For the speaker, the best way to shout his political opinions to the rooftops is through a
poem.

5) The power of the Imagination: Implicit in the poet’s suggestion that dreaming of freedom and liberty is
a way of overcoming the potentially soul-crushing reality of being trapped inside a jail is the optimistic
advice that the imagination can be used to over simple loneliness, alienation and ostracism. If someone
actually held in bondage within those stone walls and iron cages can unleash the power of his mind to
reject the authoritarian diminishment of humanity, then the imagination should surely be enough to keep
one from giving into the momentary depression of being held captive to mere loneliness.

Settings:

This poem is really all about the setting. It takes place in a prison, which is the main antagonist of the poem. In
other words, the poem is really just a list of the ways that the speaker is able to overcome his sorry lot as a
prisoner. And, by overcoming that challenge, he seems all the more impressive and heroic as a result.
Ironically, the speaker kind of needs the prison setting in order to write this poem in the first place. (After all,
it's hard to use your mind to break free of a place that you can just get up and walk out of.)

We wonder, though, just to what extent this speaker is truly free from his prison cell setting. Whether he's
getting tangled up in hair, paralyzed by looks, or comparing himself to caged birds, confinement seems to be all
the speaker can think about. The setting, in this way, penetrates every nook and cranny of the poem. So, while
the speaker may be able to out-fly the birds, out-swim the fish, and out-sing the linnets, he's still, in some
undeniable way, stuck in his confinement. The setting poses a really interesting question then: just what,
exactly, are the limits of the human imagination?

Figures of speech:

The poem is addressed by a prisoner to a woman named Althea. Not surprisingly, prisons, and the language
associated with them, are everywhere in this poem. Descriptions that don't directly relate to being in prison are
nevertheless laced with references to prisons or being restrained. Although the speaker claims that even though
he's in prison, he's actually free, this type of language suggests that, perhaps, he really can't escape his prison.

 Line 5: The speaker is "tangled" in Althea's hair. He's not literally tangled, so this is a metaphor for the
way he is touching her hair, or the way in which he is captivated or enraptured by it. 
 Line 6: The speaker is also "fettered" with Althea's eyes. He's not literally chained to them, so again
we've got a metaphor for the way in which he can't stop looking at them, the way he is lost or
"imprisoned" by them.
 Line 17: The speaker describes "committed [caged] linnets," which symbolize both imprisonment and
song.
  Line 25: Despite these references to prisons, the speaker claims that "stone walls do not a prison make."
 Line 26: He tells us that "iron bars" do not make a cage either.
 Paradox: The entire poem rests on this paradox: the imprisoned speaker is a free man.

Repetition:

To emphasize and support his theme, Lovelace uses repetition. Notice, for example, that seven clauses begin
with when. Notice also that the first three stanzas each end with Know no such liberty and that the final stanza
ends with Enjoy such liberty. 

Repetition also helps to form the structure of the poem in that each stanza has a single sentence with several
clauses.

In this poem, which is of a lyric type, the poet Richard Lovelace, expresses very important themes such as
Love, freedom, ..

This poem is lyric because..

We can start by themes or form( it compose of four stanzas each stanza made up of six lines)
 "Shall I wasting in despair" BY GEORGE WITHER
Shall I wasting in despair
Die because a woman's fair?
Or make pale my cheeks with care
'Cause another's rosy are?
Be she fairer than the day,
Or the flow'ry meads in May—
If she be not so to me,
What care I how fair she be?

Shall my foolish heart be pined

'Cause I see a woman kind?
Or a well-disposed nature
Joinèd with a lovely feature?
Be she meeker, kinder, than
Turtle dove or pelican,
If she be not so to me,
What care I how kind she be?

Shall a woman's virtues move

Me to perish for her love?
Or her merits' value known
Make me quite forget mine own?
Be she with that goodness blest
Which may gain her name of Best;
If she seem not such to me,
What care I how good she be?

'Cause her fortune seems too high

Shall I play the fool and die?
Those that bear a noble mind
Where they want of riches find,
Think what with them they would do
That without them dare to woo;
And unless that mind I see,
What care I how great she be?

Great or good, or kind or fair,

I will ne'er the more despair:
If she love me, this believe,
I will die ere she shall grieve;
If she slight me when I woo,
I can scorn and let her go;
For if she be not for me,
What care I for whom she be?

This poem is one that is also written by cavalier poet who is George wither, and in this poem he is saying he is not
going to waste all his life because of the love of woman unless this woman is going to give him this love back.
If the woman doesn’t care for him, he is not going to care for her. It is personal in mood “Shall I wasting in
despair”, simple in language and musical. The rhythm is not specific. And it speaks about the feel which is the
feel of love vs the feel of separation. So here we realize that all the elements of lyrics applied to it.
Analyzing the poem:

"Shall I wasting in despair Despair: ‫يأس‬

Die because a woman's fair?
Or make pale my cheeks with care pale: ‫شاحب‬
'Cause another's rosy are?
Be she fairer than the day,
Or the flow'ry meads in May—
If she be not so to me,
What care I how fair she be?"
In the first stanza he is telling us that he is not going to waste his life loving a woman …
Shall I waste my life for nothing? Shall I waste my life in crying, and despair, and depression, sorrow, and
melancholy because a woman is beautiful? And make my cheeks pale by caring of her just because of her rosy
cheeks? And cry because of her beauty? Let it be more beautiful than the day, and more beautiful than fields of
May. If her beauty is not for me, I don’t care how beautiful she is. “ I’m not going to live in despair because she is
beautiful”.

“Shall my foolish heart be pined pined: ‫منئذي‬

'Cause I see a woman kind?
Or a well-disposed nature
Joinèd with a lovely feature?
Be she meeker, kinder, than
Turtle dove or pelican, pelican: is a kind of birds
If she be not so to me,
What care I how kind she be?”
In the second stanza he is saying shall I live in sorrow, he is calling his heart foolish, just because he see a kind
woman, nice woman. Even if she has a beautiful features and beautiful personality, I will let myself live in sorrow
and sadness. Let it be kinder than the turtle dove or pelican, and maybe she is kinder than him. If she isn’t kind
with me, I don’t care how beautiful she is. I need her beauty and kindness only for me not for others. “I’m not
going to live in pain because she is kind”.

“Shall a woman's virtues move virtues: ‫الخصال الحميدة‬

Me to perish for her love?
Or her merits' value known
Make me quite forget mine own?
Be she with that goodness blest
Which may gain her name of Best;
If she seem not such to me,
What care I how good she be?”
Shall the good qualities of woman move me to destroy my life? Or because she is a famous person and known,
and because the people speaks how much she is good, make me forget who am I. I’m also a good person. Even she
is blest with that goodness, and even if she is the best woman at all in most of things, even if she is like this, but
she is not good to me , I don’t care how good she is. She has to be good for me. “I’m not going to love someone
who is not good with me”.

“ 'Cause her fortune seems too high

Shall I play the fool and die?
Those that bear a noble mind
Where they want of riches find,
Think what with them they would do
That without them dare to woo;
And unless that mind I see,
What care I how great she be?”

If she is wealthy, have a huge of fortune, shall I die?

If your mind is high, if you are educated, if you have knowledge, if you are classy, if you think differently  you
can be rich not even rich in money. “People who has a noble mind can find the richness in everywhere they
want”.
So think what with mind you can do, and what without it you do. If you have a good noble mind you are a rich
person, and without them, you are a sad person.
If her mind is not like that, I don’t care about her fortune and the money that she has. I want a person that has a
noble mind. If I don’t see this mind, I don’t care how great this woman she is.

“Great or good, or kind or fair,

I will ne'er the more despair:
If she love me, this believe,
I will die ere she shall grieve;
If she slight me when I woo, woo: ‫ أتودد اليه‬slight: ‫صغرتني‬
I can scorn and let her go;
For if she be not for me,
What care I for whom she be?”

Great or good or kind or fair, I will never despair and be sorrow anymore.
If she loves me, and I doubt in that, I will die before she feel sad. I will sacrifice and die for her.
* if she slight me when I try to be good with her *But if she reduces my value when I woo to her, and consider me
weak, when I try to be good with her, I will shout at her and let her go away. If she is not for me. I don’t care
whom she going to be.

Themes:
1) Love: all his words is paradox for the reality because he loves her and he wants her.
2) Despair: he is in sadness he lives in despair.
3) Raising his own spirits
4) Selfishness: he’s a very selfish person, he want her for himself only.
5) Careful: by writing this poem this means that he is really cares for her.
6) Unrequited love: which is from one side. It seems that she doesn’t care for him, that why he is in despair
because he said “I will ne'er the more despair” I will never living despair anymore. So it seems that he
loves her so much and he living in despair, and he is raising his own models in order to know to be able to
get over his think some more.

He is a pleasure seeker who looks at life from a very subjective angle. This attitude of feeling is not surprising.
The Cavalier Poets in general, have rejected the idea of domineering love. To them a woman is kind, it maybe
unkind, maybe despised, maybe loved, maybe admired, depends on the poet’s moods and feelings. They have
never accepted to have their individualism absorbed in a passionate affair of love.
So here there is love, but because they are Cavaliers, and Cavaliers love is transient which means they love only
for one day and maybe they try to find somebody else not like Shakespearean love. And that’s why it seems that
this woman was very cunning (‫( محنكة‬one and was able to entangle the poet with her love, and that’s why he felt
into her bait, and that’s why he is not happy about that.
He shows the feeling of an indifference to the other sex. He adds sentimentally if she is for him. So he tries to
show us that if she is for him, he will be a very faithful person, but if she is not for him, then he is not going to
be a good person. But in reality he is selfish and he wants to control her and he wants to have her only for him.
And he is living in despair, because if you read between the lines there’s a kind of sadness, and there’s a kind of
despair, and the poet is trying to show us that he is happy, but in reality he is in love and he is not that happy
about. He is trying to raise his morals clear
Language:
Because he is son of Ben, which is one of the Cavaliers, George Withers. His language is clear, simple, and
smooth in expression; there is no need for further explanation. It is easy so you don’t find very difficult
questions very difficult words. This is due to the over clarification of the poet starts in the five stanzas. Besides,
the poet makes successful use of the question form of structure. “Shall I wasting in despair?” This is a kind of
question, and then he answered if she is not for me, then …. Instead of getting direct statement, he answers the
question, adding vividness means clarity, reality to the situation. So his language is clear because he is a
cavalier and he writes in clear language, simple and smoothness, he writes in the form of questions and he
answers the question with vividness. Also, one important thing is in language is that repetition and
monosyllables like “shall I” , “wasting in despair”. So here the poet repeats almost the same thought all along.
He also repeats the same expressions, and this is not a disadvantage. The repetitive aspects is pleasing and
inviting, and the monosyllabic words provide the touch of charming musicality (one by one you will find the
kind of musicality).

Imagery means when you close your eyes what do you see, or what figures of speech that is he using?
Also, imagery is an essential element in writing a lyric poetry, and this poetry is not an exception because it has
lots of imagery. Every stanza has a kind of proper metaphor
- In the first stanza: the lady beauty is compared to the daylight or the flowers of spring. Kindness of
woman is compared to a turtle love

Form:
It consist of five stanzas, each one made up of eight lines. It is enriched by the repetition that last two lines of
every stanza. They have the same rhyme “ if she be not for me, What care I for whom she be?”. And to the
rhyme scheme it is of the couple form all through except the first stanza, where the first 4 lines rhyme similarly,
hence the general line is AA, BB, CC, DD.
It is monosyllables, enriched by the repetition, charming musically, and imagery ( what figures of speech he used).

Holy Sonnets: Death, be not proud

 By John Donne (1572-1631)
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee a
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so; b
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow b
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me. a
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, a
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow, b
And soonest our best men with thee do go, b
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery. a
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men, c
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell, d
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well d
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then? c
One short sleep past, we wake eternally e
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die. e

 It’s not a Cavalier poet, it is a metaphysical poet. The person who looks beyond the reality. He contemplates
love, life. Person who thinks about everything that is after the death, and after the life. He connects every
trivial things to something, which is universal. In addition, he looks at things from different perspective. He
doesn’t look at things from shallow perspective. He is deep.
 Italian sonnet, A, B, B, A, C, D, D, C, E, F, F, E
 It is composed of 14 lines
 Donne’s “Holy Sonnet 10” follows the Elizabethan/Shakespearean sonnet form in that it is made up of three
quatrains and a concluding couplet. However, Donne has chosen the Italian/Petrarchan sonnet rhyme
scheme of ABBA for the first two quatrains, grouping them into an octet typical of the Petrarchan form. He
switches rhyme scheme in the third quatrain to CDDC, and then the couplet rhymes EE as usual. NB:
English sonnet the rhyme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
 Italian/Petrarchan sonnet
 Iambic pentameter means two pairs of sounds “weak – strong”  five pairs in each line
 

Analysis 
Right off the bat, the speaker starts talking straight to Death, whom he treats as a person. He tells Death not to
be so proud because he’s really not as scary or powerful as most people think. The speaker starts talking in
contradictions, saying that people don’t really die when they meet Death – and neither will the speaker.
Then, he compares rest and sleep, two things that aren’t scary at all.  
Then, the speaker kicks it up a notch, calling Death a "slave" and accusing him of hanging out with those
lowlifes "poison, war, and sickness." Besides, we don’t need Death – the speaker can just take drugs, and it will
have the same effect: falling asleep. So death is just a "short sleep," after which a good Christian will wake up
and find himself in Eternity. Once this happens, it will seem like Death has died.  
 
 Section I (lines 1-6) 
Lines 1-2 
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee 
Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so; 
 
o The speaker believes that death is bad, "proud," and arrogant, and thinks he can boss people
around. 
o Everybody treats death like a king – of the Underworld. They think that he has the power
("might") to do terrible ("dreadful") things. 
o (And, by the way, we’re going to refer to Death as "he" because Donne talks to death as if it is a
person – think of the hooded guy who carries around a sickle. Also, when poets address a person or
thing that isn’t there or can’t respond, it’s called an "apostrophe." This is one of the most famous
examples of apostrophe in all of literature.) 
o But, the speaker isn’t afraid. 
o The speaker orders Death not to be proud, and then says that people are mistaken in treating
Death as some fearsome being. 
 
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow 
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me. 
 
o Death thinks that he has the power to kill people, but he actually doesn’t. 
o Donne uses the word "overthrow" instead of "kill" in line 3 – an interesting choice, because
people usually use the word in the context of "overthrowing" a ruler and taking control of his
territory. 
o Notice how there’s a nice dramatic pause created by the line break between "overthrow" and
"die," as if the speaker lets Death savor the idea of killing people just before pulling the rug out from
under him. 
o To make things more humiliating, the speaker starts to show his pity by addressing "poor Death,"
as if Death just had his dreams crushed, and now needs some cheering up. 
o But, hold on: it seems totally ridiculous to say that Death doesn’t kill people. 
o That’s what makes Death Death!  
o Donne uses the idea of Christian eternity to argue that death is something that people pass
through on their way to a new, eternal life. 
o A good Christian must experience death – the end of life on earth – but, in the long run, he or she
can’t be "killed." 
 
 
 

Lines 5-6 
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, 
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow, 
  
o Didn’t they teach Donne in school that you shouldn’t start a sentence with a preposition like
"from?" 
o These two lines are a tangled knot of words, so read ‘em slow, and then go back and read
‘em again. 
o He compares death to "rest" and "sleep," two things that give us "pleasure." 
o Therefore, death should give us pleasure, too, when we finally meet it. 
o He claims that rest and sleep are only "pictures" of death. 
o The difference these two things and death is like the difference between a painting of an object
and the real thing. 
o They are watered-down versions of death, so if they give us some pleasure, then death will give
"much more." 
o The pleasure of death will "flow’ like water or honey. 
o The comparison of death to sleep or eternal rest is a classic metaphor in Christian writings – one
that goes back a long time. 
o The philosopher St. Augustine, for example, writes that he won’t know what rest is really like,
until he rests with God in Heaven. 
o It is a way for people to talk themselves out of their fear of dying – compare it to an experience
that they enjoy. 
 
 
 
 Section II (lines 7-14) 
Lines 7-8 
And soonest our best men with thee do go, 
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery. 
o The "best men […] soonest" follow Death into the afterlife, thinking that he will give the "rest of
their bones," and free or "deliver" their Christian souls from all the pain of earthly life. 
o (Note that "deliver" can also refer to childbirth, which adds to the whole "new life" idea.) 
o They are the hardest-working and bravest people in society, so they get to kick their feet back
and enjoy eternal rest before everyone else. 
o The speaker almost certainly refers to people like soldiers and martyrs, who sacrifice themselves
for the greater good. 
o Donne makes it sound like the best men volunteer for death, when, in most cases, they only
volunteer to risk death in order to achieve something else. 
Lines 9-10 
Thou'art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men, 
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell, 
o In Petrarchan sonnets like this, it’s standard for the poem to shift or "turn" at line 9. 
o This shift can be slight, or it can be a total U-turn. 
o We think this sonnet has more of a slight turn. 
o The speaker raises his intensity in these lines, and becomes more hostile towards Death, calling
him names and taunting him as a slave. 
o With the metaphor of the slave, the speaker suggests that Death doesn’t act on his own free will,
and instead is controlled or manipulated by other things like "fate, chance, kings, and desperate
men." 
o Let’s take these one by one. 
o Like Death, Fate is often treated as a person in literature. 
o Fate is thought to control everything that happens to people, including when they will die. 
o So, Death doesn’t decide when people will die; he just carries out orders from Fate. 
 o "Chance" is kind of the opposite of fate, so, again, it’s sneaky of Donne to put them side-by-
side. 
o "Chance" is luck, the idea that things can happen for no particular reason. 
o "Kings" are different from fate and chance because they are real people, but they have a similar
kind of control over when and how people die. 
o A king can send soldiers to die in battle or sentence people to execution. 
o "Desperate men," we think, refers to people who commit suicide or do stupid and reckless stuff,
which might as well be suicide. 
o If you decide to take your own life, it pretty much robs Death of the only card he has to play. 
o In line 10, the speaker brings another accusation against Death, claiming that he hangs out, or
"dwells," with those notorious thugs, "poison, war, and sickness." 
o In other words, Death’s friends are total losers. 
o It might be obvious by now, but we’ll repeat it anyway: Donne treats these three things like
people. 
o What do poison, war, and sickness have in common? 
o Easy: they all kill lots and lots of people. 
o Moreover, they are all generally considered bad or painful ways to die. 
Lines 11-12 
And poppy'or charms can make us sleep as well 
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then? 
o In lines 5-6, the speaker argues that death will be just like sleep, except even better. 
o But, now, he’s all, "Who needs Death anyway? If I want to sleep really well, I can just use drugs
and magic charms!" 
o This seems to conflict with the idea that Death is supposed to be way more pleasurable than
sleep, but who cares? 
o The "poppy" is a flower used to make opium, an old-fashioned drug that makes people really
happy, but also turns their skin yellow. 
o In fact, drugs and magic charms work even "better" than Death at bringing on sleep. 
o And, "stroke" is another interesting word. 
o It could refer to "stroking" someone, like one might stroke a child’s head to put him to sleep. 
o Or, it could refer to the "stroke" of a sword, which is obviously much more violent. 
o Or, it could imply the "stroke" of a clock at the exact moment of death. 
o Totally demolishing Death’s claim to be the ultimate sleep aid, the speaker puts Death in his
place, telling him not to "swell" with pride. 
o This rhetorical question culminates the poem’s entire argument up to this point. 
 
Lines 13-14 
One short sleep past, we wake eternally, 
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die. 
o Donne, and the Metaphysical Poets in general, are masters of the surprise ending, and this one is
no exception. 
o First, he returns to the idea of death as "sleep," which gets a bit more complicated here because
he gives a time-frame: it’s a "short sleep." 
o In traditional Christian theology, it is thought that, when people died, it is like they are asleep
until the end of the world or Judgment Day. 
o At this point, Jesus wakes everyone up to lead them to Heaven, where they will spend eternity. 
o Therefore, when the Apocalypse happens and the world ends, there isn’t any more death. All
good Christians will have eternal life in Heaven. 
o The poem’s final words seal the deal: "Death, thou shalt die." 
o And, by the way, it also makes no sense on a literal level. 
o Assuming Death does not kill himself, who’s going to kill him other than, um, Death? 
 o Clearly, the final "die" just means that he won’t exist anymore. 
o It’s a classic Metaphysical Poet move to end a poem on a line that seems to contradict itself. 
o But, he sure got the better of that chump, Death. 
 
Setting 
We don’t call Donne a Metaphysical Poet for nothing. "Metaphysics" is the study of the reality beyond the
physical, everyday world, and "Death, be not proud" is a good example. There are hardly any images of the
"physical" world which we’re so used to seeing in poetry. It uses philosophical arguments, rather than
descriptions of nature.  
 
In the fictional world of the poem, the speaker gets to address, or talk to, something that most people never get
to talk to: Death. Therefore, you have to visualize “him”. We’ll stick with a skeleton wearing a black cloak and
carrying a sickle. We also know that Death is the only thing positioned between the speaker and eternal bliss,
so we imagine him as a big guy who stands in the middle of a doorway, blocking the path as if to say, "If you
want to get through this door, you have to get past me." 
On the speaker’s side of the door, there’s life on earth, filled with both pain and joy. On the other side of the
door, there’s the afterlife, which we hope means Heaven. Death looks really proud; in fact, he’s "swollen" with
pride (line 12). You know you have to cross the doorway eventually, but when you do, Death will strike you.
However, when you wake up, it will all be over, and Death will be gone. That’s where the poem leaves us.
What happens next is up to your imagination. 
 
Form and Meter 
Petrarchan Sonnet 
You can thank Petrarch for all the sonnets you have to read in school. This 14th century Italian poet isn’t the
first person to write sonnets, but he makes the form popular all across Europe, including England. He is the
Elvis Presley of the sonnet. But, just as with rock 'n' roll, new poets keep fiddling with the sonnet form,
tweaking it slightly to fit their needs. Shakespeare, for example, uses a different form of the sonnet, which we
call "Shakespearean" for that reason. But, Donne stuck to the original. Mostly. 
 
The Petrarchan sonnet has fourteen lines and a rhyme scheme that goes ABBAABBA and then, most
frequently, CDCDCD. But, "Death, be not proud" finishes slightly differently. Its last six lines are CDDCAA. If
you look closer, there’s even more weird stuff going on at the end. For example, line 13 has a word near the
end, "swell’st," that rhymes with "dwell" and "well" from the previous two lines. He just sticks a rhyme in the
middle of the verse: very strange. And, the last two lines don’t seem to rhyme well at all: "eternally" and "die."
You have to pronounce it "eternal-lie" to make the rhyme work. No one is sure exactly what Renaissance
English sounds like, so it’s possible that they did pronounce the word this way. But, it’s also possible that
Donne wanted the rhyme scheme to fizzle out at the same moment when death "dies." 
 
Another feature of a Petrarchan sonnet is a shift, or "turn," in the argument or subject matter somewhere in the
poem. In Italian, the word is volta. Usually, the turn occurs at line 9 to coincide with the introduction of a new
rhyme scheme. That’s the case for "Death, be not proud," although the turn isn’t major. The speaker sharpens
his attack and starts calling Death names, but he doesn’t fundamentally change his argument. If you want to
rebel, you can argue that the real turn doesn’t happen until the middle of the last line, when Donne drops this
shocker: "Death, thou shalt die." At the very least, we think it is the most surprising move in the poem. 
 
 
 
Finally, the Petrarchan sonnet has a regular meter: iambic pentameter, which means that each line has ten
syllables, and every second syllable is accented. That’s the reason, for example, that "Thou art" has to be
condensed into one mouth-cramming syllable, "Thou’art" in line 9. Otherwise, there would be eleven syllables
in the line. 
 
But, what about the first line? For one thing, it begins on an accented beat: DEATH. Truth be told, Donne’s
pretty loose with his iambic pentameter. For him, iambic pentameter is less of a rule and more of a general
guideline. He sometimes counts a big pause as a syllable, which is why line 1 seems to only have nine syllables:
because of the pauses in the line, it takes at least as long to recite. 
 
 
Symbols, Imagery, Wordplay 
Welcome to the land of symbols, imagery, and wordplay.  
Death 
Death is a total poser in this poem, like a schoolyard bully who turns out not to be so tough, after all. The
speaker even makes death out to be a good thing because it leads to the new life of Christian eternity. Plus,
everyone bosses Death around, from kings to suicidal people. Finally, a lot of the poem’s wit comes from
combining literal and symbolic uses of the words "death" and die." 
 Lines 1-2: This has to be one of the most famous examples of personification and apostrophe in all of
poetry. The speaker treats death like a person who is considered "mighty" and "dreadful," which is
personification. And, he addresses this person-like Death directly, even though Death obviously can’t
respond, which is apostrophe. 
 Lines 3-4: Donne uses apostrophe again to address, "poor Death," which is an embarrassing and
condescending way to talk to someone who considers himself a tough-guy. 
 Lines 5-6: In this metaphor, he calls rest and sleep "pictures" of Death. They don’t have photographs in
Donne’s age, so "pictures" just refers to imitations, like a drawing or a painting. 
 Lines 7-8: Continuing the personification of Death, the speaker says that good people allow death to
lead them out of their earthly lives. The bones of the "best men" are a synecdoche, because they actually
stand for the whole physical body. Line 8, then, draws a standard religious contrast between body and soul. 
 Line 12: We often talk about people who "swell" with pride, and that’s what’s going on here, when the
speaker asks, "Why swell’st thou then?" This is a rhetorical question, designed to make Death realize that he
has no reason to be proud. 
 Line 14: He uses the concept of death three ways in this tricky line. First, there is real, physical death
(the second word of the line). Then, there is the personified idea of Death. Finally, there is death as a
metaphor for simple non-existence – something that ceases to be there – which the last word "die"
references. 
Rest and Sleep 
Donne didn’t invent the comparison between death and sleep, but he uses it here to great effect. But, you have
to know a tiny bit of Christian theology to fully understand the idea. It is thought that, when faithful Christians
die, they are only "dead" until the Day of Judgment comes and Christ returns to Earth. They compare this length
of time to a period of "sleep." At this point, time ends, eternity begins, and all the faithful Christians who died
will "wake up" to be led into Heaven. At this point, all their earthly troubles are over for good, and they will be
at "rest" with God. 
 Line 5: This metaphor compares "rest" and "sleep" to "pictures," like a painting or drawing. The point is
that the rest and sleep are pale imitations, and Death is the real thing. On the other hand, Death is only a
much stronger version of sleep, and not something scary and different. 
 Line 8: This line describes what the experience of death means to the "best men" of line 7. One of its
meanings is eternal rest for their weary bodies, or "bones." 
 
 Line 11: The comparison between Death and sleep becomes an extended metaphor at this point. The
speaker says that, if he only wants a really good sleep, he doesn’t even need Death; he can use "poppies"
(opium, a kind of drug) or "charms" (magic or potions). 
 Line 13: The extended metaphor continues. He calls the time between the speaker’s death and the Day
of Judgment a "short sleep." In human terms, this may not seem that short (we can assume the speaker is
"asleep" for hundreds of years already), but, compared to Eternity, pretty much anything is short. When the
speaker "wakes up," he will find himself in Heaven. 
Death’s Friends and Masters 
Death hangs out with a bad crowd, like the kids who hang out behind the bleachers and try to talk you into
vandalizing things on Halloween. Unfortunately, they aren’t cool at all. They’re big losers, in fact, and Death
knows it – which is why it’s such an insult when the speaker points out Death’s connection to poison, war, and
sickness. And, that’s not all. Death – this big strong guy – isn’t even his own master! All these other people tell
him what to do. It’s like when you learn that the bully who torments you at school actually has his own bullies
in the next grade up. It may not prevent your daily beatings, but it makes you feel a whole lot better about it. 
 Line 9: This metaphor calls Death a "slave" to "fate, chance, kings, and desperate men." Implicitly, all
these things are personified as Death’s master. 
 Line 10: Although it’s not as obvious as in other parts of the poem, we think "poison, war, and sickness"
are personified as thugs, or worthless individuals. 
Birth 
There’s only one example, and it’s a play on words, but we wanted to give Birth a little love, too, because it’s
nothing but Death, Death, Death for most of the poem. 
 Line 8: It’s a pun! Sweet! To "deliver" someone can mean to set them free, as in the Lord’s Prayer:
"Deliver us from evil...." But, the speaker also wants to be "delivered" into the afterlife, like a baby is
"delivered" into the world during birth. The comparison of death to rebirth is such a common metaphor that
we rarely even think of it as a being a metaphor. 
THEMES 
 Mortality 
The poem takes an assertive stand against mortality. It makes the paradoxical statement that mortality is
itself mortal. In other words, death doesn’t exist in the long run. However, the speaker wouldn’t make
this argument if he doesn’t fear that maybe death is the end. As readers, we must decide whether the
poem’s boldness masks some very deep terror about the "void" on the other side of life. After all, is it
really possible to talk oneself out of this fear? And, if not, what’s the point of writing the poem? 
 
 Dreams, Hopes, and Plans 
The big dream and hope in the poem is to defeat Death and go to Heaven. The speaker is confident that
his faith in God won’t let him down, but that’s the thing about faith: it doesn’t come with a guarantee.
Unfortunately, the speaker doesn’t have a lot of other options. He must die, no matter what. Although he
states the final assertion – "Death, thou shalt die" – as if it’s a fact of life (like gravity), it’s really an
expression of hope for the unknown future. 
 
  Courage 
We’ve got to admit it: we’re impressed. It takes real guts and chutzpah to stand up to Death. Throughout
the entire length of the poem, the speaker never once drops his guard. In fact, he grows more confident
in the second half. But, is it courage or delusion? Maybe real courage is to accept that death is the end of
life as we know it, and anything that comes after that is a mystery. 
 
 Religion 
Back in Donne’s day, the smartest, funniest, hippest writers – The Metaphysical Poets – are the ones
who can talk about complex religious topics while letting fly with jokes, puns, and one-liners. But,
whatever happens to simple religious devotion – saying "I believe" and leaving it at that? Clearly, Donne
feels that something a bit more sophisticated is necessary. The poem is more concerned with spinning
out clever and complicated arguments than with reciting prayers or religious scripture. Does this take
away from the religious message of the work? Or, does it make that message resonate even more? 
 
On His Blindness 
John Milton. 1608–1674 

WHEN I consider how my light is spent a

E're half my days, in this dark world and wide, b
And that one Talent which is death to hide, b Octave Poses
Lodg'd with me useless, though my Soul more bent a
To serve therewith my Maker, and present a
Problem
My true account, least he returning chide, b 8 lines
Doth “Does” God exact day-labour, light deny'd, b
I fondly ask; But patience to prevent a
That murmur, soon replies, God doth not need c
Either man's work or his own gifts, who best d Sestet Answers
Bear his milde yoak, they serve him best, his State e
Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed c Questions
And post o're Land and Ocean without rest: d 6 lines
They also serve who only stand and waite. e

 John Milton is a religious person, he was supporting the parliament. He didn’t support King Charles I.
 Italian sonnet
 When I reflect and think how my life is lost, even when I’m still young in this dark world, and when I
think the only talent that I have is buried with me. Even though I still have the motivation and the
incentive to work for God and to present him my true account, and to show him that I’d served a lot
because he might be retaining upset with me. I ask a question “Does God exact day-labour light
deny’d” does god require the blindness people to serve him. The patience answers me God doesn’t need
man’s worked or talents. He believes that serving the parliament is at the same time serving the God
 This poem is a sonnet because its composed of 14 lines, it has an iambic pentameter rhythm. It is an
Italian sonnet and it rhyme ABBAABBACDECDE. Iambic means five feet/pairs of sound each pair
starts with a weak followed by strong sound
 All the lines in the poem are in iambic pentameter. In this metric pattern, a line has five pairs of
unstressed and stressed syllables, for a total of ten syllables. The first two lines of the poem illustrate
this pattern:
       1...........2........... 3............4............5
When I | con SID | er HOW.| my LIFE | is SPENT
       1................2............ 3...............4....................4
Ere HALF | my DAYS | in THIS | dark WORLD.| and WIDE

SUMMARY 
The first seven and a half lines of this poem are one big, long, confusing sentence. Here's our summary: "When
I think of how I have lost my vision even before middle age, and how I am unable to use my best talent to serve
God, I want to ask if God requires his servants to work for him even if they don't have vision." 
 
But before he can speak up, a figure called Patience answers his question. Patience is like, "You think
God needs your work? No, man. His best servants are the ones who bear life's burden the best. He already has
thousands of people running around across land and sea to serve him. You can just stand right there and wait on
him, and that's enough." 

Lines 1-8 
Lines 1-2 
When I consider how my light is spent, 
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, 
 The speaker thinks about how all of his light has been used up ("spent") before even half his life is over.
As a man without light, he now lives in a world that is both "dark and wide." 
 The first word of the poem, "When," gives us an idea of the structure of the sentence that will follow.
The structure is, "When this happens, that happens." As in, "When I broke the glass, I had to find a broom to
sweep it up." 
 But be careful – the second part of the sentence doesn't come until lines 7 and 8. Milton's audience was
more used to reading dense and complicated sentences, so you'll want to take the first seven lines slowly.
(That's OK, we also think Milton's audience would have had a doozy of a time figuring out text messaging.) 
 Most readers believe that the poem is clearly about Milton's blindness, but the poem never directly refers
to blindness or even vision. Instead, we think that "light" is a metaphor for vision. 
 The metaphor is complicated. The speaker says that his light can be "spent," and this word suggests that
he is thinking of something like an oil lamp. The light is "spent" when the oil in the lamp runs out. To make
a contemporary comparison, it would be like someone comparing his vision to a flashlight that runs out of
batteries before it is supposed to. Milton is suggesting that he got a bad deal. 
 The word "spent" also makes us think of money. Milton is reflecting on how he has used or "spent" his
vision, now that it is gone. Has he used it wisely, or did he fritter it away because he thought it would never
run out? 
 The word "ere" means "before." How does Milton know that he became blind before his life was
halfway over? For this to be true, wouldn't he have to be some kind of psychic who knew when he was
going to die? The usual explanation of this line is that Milton guesses roughly how long he will live. Milton
went completely blind at the age of 42. 
 Finally, calling the world "dark and wide" makes it sound like a scary place, doesn't it? Interestingly,
Milton makes it seem as if the world has run out of light, rather than growing dark because of any blindness
on his part. 
Lines 3-4 
And that one Talent which is death to hide 
Lodged with me useless, […] 
 These lines are the trickiest in the entire poem, because they appear to be simpler than they are. 
 The key word is "talent." You probably read "talent" and think of skills like throwing a perfect spiral or
being a piano prodigy. But there's a double meaning intended for people who know history or Biblical
scripture. In the ancient world, a "talent" was also a standard of weight used to measure money, just as a
"pound" is a measure of both weight and currency. 
 You can read Matthew 25 (it's short), but here's our brief summary of "The Parable of Talents." A lord
gives three of his servants some money ("talents") to hold on to when he leaves for a trip. Two of the
servants use the money to gain more money for their master. (In contemporary language, we'd call this
'investment.') But the third servant just buries the money, the ancient equivalent of hiding it under your
mattress. When the lord returns, he's happy with the first two servants and gives them more responsibilities,
but furious with the third servant. He exiles the third servant into the "darkness," which is the equivalent of
"death." 
 When Milton says that talent is "death to hide," he is referring to the money in the Biblical story and also
to his own "talent," in the sense of a skill or trade. 
 There is no way to tell what specific talent he means, but our guess would be his intelligence and his
writing and reading skills, which he had used in service of Oliver Cromwell's government. This "talent" is
"lodged" or buried within the speaker just like the money in the story. It cannot be used to make greater
profit. 
 
  
Lines 4-6 
[…] though my Soul more bent 
To serve therewith my Maker, and present 
My true account, lest he returning chide; 
 The speaker has just told us that his talent is as useless as money buried in the desert, but now he says
that his uselessness has nothing to do with a lack of will. To the contrary, his soul desires (is "bent") to use
his skills in the service of his "Maker," God. 
 When he is faced with God, he wants to have a record of accomplishment to show Him. 
 God is being compared with the lord from the "Parable of the Talents" in Matthew 25. When God
"returns" to him like the master in the parable, the speaker wants to show that he has used his talents
profitably. 
 The word "account" here means both" story" and "a record of activities with money." 
 If the speaker turns out to have wasted his profits, he worries that God will scold or "chide" him. And if
God is anything like the lord from the parable, the speaker could get cast into a darkness even more fearful
than the one created by his blindness. 
Lines 7-8 
"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?" 
I fondly ask. […] 
 It has taken the speaker six lines to get through the part of the sentence that begins "When." Now he
goes on to say what happens "when" he thinks about all the stuff he has described above. Namely, he
wonders if God demands that people undertake hard, physical work, or "day-labour," when they don't have
any light. 
 The speaker doesn't have any light because he's blind, but in Milton's metaphor he compares this
condition to having to do work at night that you would normally do during the day – like, say, building a
house or plowing a field. 
 The word "exact" means something like "charge," "claim," or "demand." You can "exact" a toll or a fee,
for example. So the speaker wants to know if God demands work as a kind of payment that is due to Him. 
 The first section of the poem is completed by the words "I fondly ask." The word "fondly" means
"foolishly," not "lovingly." The speaker accuses himself of being an idiot for even thinking this question. 
 Fortunately, "patience" steps in to prevent his foolishness. More on that in the next section. 
 
Lines 8-14 
Lines 8-10 
[…] But patience, to prevent 
That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need 
Either man's work or his own gifts; who best 
 "Patience" to the rescue! Patience is personified as someone who can talk sense into the speaker.
Patience is often personified in Christian art because of its role in helping one to achieve important virtues
like courage and wisdom. 
 The speaker is about to "murmur" his foolish question about whether God would be so cruel as to make
impossible demands of work, but then his patience steps in to stop him. The rest of the poem is the reply
made by patience. 
 First, patience points out that God does not need anything. God is complete and perfect. He doesn't need
work or talents ("gifts") of any kind. 
 
 
 
 
 
Line 11 
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. […] 
 Patience now scores its second point in the rebuttal to the speaker. Patience argues that those people are
the best servants of God who allow their fates to be linked with and controlled by God, as if they were
wearing a yoke. 
 Essentially, this means accepting things as they come, especially suffering and misfortune. 
 A "yoke" is a wood frame that is placed around the necks of farm animals, like oxen, so that they can be
directed. 
 Patience doesn't want to make God sound like a slave driver, so God's yoke is called "mild," or not-that-
bad. It's not how much you have to show for your time on earth that counts, it's how you handle your
submission to God. 
 
Lines 11-14 
[…] His state 
Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed 
And post o'er Land and Ocean without rest: 
They also serve who only stand and wait." 
 The final point made by patience is that God is like a king, not a lord, so the "Parable of the Talents"
does not strictly apply. 
 Lords need everyone on their estates to work for them; they usually don't have the resources to spend on
keeping servants just to stand around and wait on them. Kings, on the other hand, have unlimited resources,
especially if they control a "state" as large as the entire earth. 
 With His kingly status, God has plenty of minions to do His "bidding" by rushing from place to place –
that is, doing things that require light and vision. It doesn't make a difference whether one more person
fulfills the role or not. 
 But kings also have people who "wait" on them, who stand in a state of readiness until their action is
needed. 
 To summarize, we believe that the sentence, "His state is kingly," is meant to contrast with the "lordly"
state of the master of the Biblical parable in Matthew 25. 
 This being Milton, of course, "wait" can also have the meaning of waiting for something to happen, as
in, "I waited for the bus." 
 What would the speaker be waiting for? The Second Coming of Jesus? The end of history? We don't
know because the poem only suggests this meaning so vaguely. 
 The word "post" here just means "to travel quickly." That's why the mail is often referred to as the
"post," because you're supposed to travel quickly to deliver it. 
 The poem ends with a vindication of the speaker's passivity, which has been forced on him by his
blindness. 
 
SETTING (time and place) not important
The speaker is not in mortal danger, but he feels like his soul is endangered. He is left to navigate a "dark" and
"wide" world without his vision. What's more, his demanding "Maker" has gone on a trip, and he worries he
will be cast into further darkness if he can't make use of his "Talent." That "Talent" is buried deep within him,
like a gold coin that has been thrown in a hole and covered up with soil. 
 
In the second half of the poem, "patience" presents a different view of the world. In this view, the world is a
huge kingdom with thousands and thousands of servants working to achieve God's will. Some of them speed
from continent to continent like the characters in an Indiana
Jones movie. Others just stand around until the king calls for them. 
 
 
 
 
Form and Meter IMPORTANT!!!!
Italian (Petrarchan) Sonnet in Iambic Pentameter 
Milton loved the classics, and in the 17th century, "classic" meant anything associated with Ancient Greece or
Rome. The heart of the Roman Empire was located in what is now modern-day Italy, and the sonnet was
invented in Italy, so it was not a surprise that Milton would favor the original Italian form of the sonnet. This
form is divided up into two sections, one with eight lines and one with six. Shakespeare, on the other hand, used
a sonnet form that ended with a rhyming two-line couplet. The Italian sonnet form was made popular by the
Italian poet Petrarch.  
 
The rhyme scheme of this sonnet is ABBAABBA CDECDE. So, you can see that lines 1, 4, 5, and 8 all rhyme
with each other. Unlike a classic Italian sonnet, "When I consider how my light is spent" does not divide cleanly
into eight lines and six lines, however. The first section of the poem consists of the speaker trying to frame his
foolish question, and the second consists of the response to the question by a figure named "patience." Most
Italian sonnets have a sharp thematic turn or "volta" between the two sections, but in this poem the turn is a bit
muddled between lines 8 and 9. If you think about it, the confusion makes perfect sense, as it conveys the
awkwardness of someone (patience) interrupting someone else (the speaker) before the speaker can say
something stupid. 
 
The meter of the poem is classic iambic pentameter, with five iambs (an unaccented syllable followed by an
accented syllable). Some of the lines do not fit the pattern exactly, but the pattern itself is clear: 
 
"Doth God ex-act day-la-bor, light de-nied?" 
 
Finally, this poem features a lot of enjambment, which is when one line runs over into the next without a pause.
Just check out the end of each line, and you'll find that over half lack punctuation markers like periods or semi-
colons. 

THEMES 
Guilt and Blame 
The speaker is guilty for he thinks he wasted the gift that God has given him by doing late-night reading and
writing. He feels guilty because he thinks that due to his blindness, he could not anymore serve his purpose. He
thinks that because of the loss of his eyesight, his poetic talent would be buried deep into his soul and would not
anymore see the light of the day.

 Dreams, Hopes, and Plans 

Before the speaker has gone blind, he had high hopes. He planned on serving God profitably and using his
talent for prosperity. However, due to him getting blind at a young age, all his hopes was replaced by his self-
doubt.. As he looks to the future, he compares his situation to the third servant from the New Testament
"Parable of the Talents" in Matthew 25.
The speaker believes he has nothing more to fear from God except "chiding," because he has already been cast
into "darkness." 
 
Virtue 
Patience was emphasized in the poem. Patience is an important virtue because it is due to this that we achieved
the others. If we do not have any patience to do something then we could never depart from zero. Also during
his time of darkness, his patience preserved, stayed strong and never wavered. It was Patience that stopped him
from further questioning himself and God. It was this virtue that helped him have an epiphany on his blindness. 
Spiritual light
Light” is one of the most focused subjects in the poem. Not only is his eyesight that is important to him, but also
his spiritual light. The spiritual light is the same as the light of life. Although he lost the light of his eyes, he was
still alive due to his inner light preserving and giving him power.

Inner Conflict
The primary focus of the poem is the speaker’s inner conflict. He wanted to serve God profitably just like how
the first and second servant had served their Lord in the parable. However, his blindness stand as a hindrance to
his goal. He then wonders if God would demand from him the same service of what He would demand to those
who could see.

Symbols , imagery, wordplay: welcome to the land of symbols, imagery, and wordplay. Before you travel any
further, please know that there may be some theory academy terminology ahead

Vision, light, and darkness: Milton is using a metaphor to compare his vision to a light source that could run
out. He uses another metaphor to compare his lack of vision to an imagined world that does not have light

Patience: patience is an important virtue in Christianity. It allows people to work toward other "theological"
virtue like hope and faith. The virtue of patience is personified as patience, the amazing advice giver.

This poem is full of metaphors extended metaphors and personification

 To Celia  
BY BEN JONSON 
Drink to me only with thine eyes, 
         And I will pledge with mine; 
Or leave a kiss but in the cup, 
         And I’ll not look for wine. 
The thirst that from the soul doth rise 
         Doth ask a drink divine; 
But might I of Jove’s nectar sup, 
         I would not change for thine. 
 
I sent thee late a rosy wreath,  bouquet 
         Not so much honouring thee 
As giving it a hope, that there 
         It could not withered be. 
But thou thereon didst only breathe, 
         And sent’st it back to me; 
Since when it grows, and smells, I swear, 
         Not of itself, but thee. 
 
The speaker tells a woman (we're guessing her name is Celia) to drink to him only with her eyes – kind of like
saying "cheers," but with her eyes instead of raising a glass. He goes on to describe his "thirst" for this woman.
We're not totally sure how much Celia likes the speaker, though. He tells us about how he sent her a wreath of
flowers once, but she returned it. The cool thing is that, even though she returned the wreath, it never wilted.
Somehow, Celia breathing on the wreath has given it eternal life.

Stanza 1

Lines 1-2

Drink to me only with thine eyes

And I will pledge with mine;

 The poem opens with the speaker addressing a woman (presumably). Because of the title, we're guessing
she's named Celia.
 He tells her to "drink" to him "only" with her "eyes." In other words, he's telling her that she doesn't
have to hold up a beer and say cheers, but only has to use her eyes. It's kind of like when you say, "I'll
drink to the Bears winning the Super Bowl."

 The speaker says that he, too, will "pledge" – i.e., "drink" or say "cheers" or something to that effect –
with his eyes.

Lines 3-4

Or leave a kiss but in the cup,

And I'll not look for wine;

 If she doesn't want to "drink," the speaker says she can just leave a kiss "but in the cup," and he won't
care if there's no wine in it ("I'll not look for wine").
 "But" in line 3 means something like "just" or "only," and it sounds funny because it's out of place. The
line really means "just leave a kiss in the cup, baby" or "only leave a kiss in the cup."
Lines 5-6

The thirst that from the soul doth rise,

Doth ask a drink divine:

 The speaker explains his desire for a drink that is not a drink. You know, he's asking for a cup with a
kiss in it instead of wine.
 He says that his thirst isn't a bodily thirst (in other words, he's not dehydrated in the desert and craving
water), but rather a more spiritual one (it is a thirst "from the soul").
 Because his "thirst" is from the "soul," it requires something more "divine" than, say, "wine" to satisfy
it.
 Notice that line 6 is a shorter line than the previous five; they all contained eight syllables, while line 6
only contains, fittingly, six syllables.

Lines 7-8

But might I of Jove's nectar sup,

I would not change for thine.

 The speaker next delivers a couplet (a pair of lines) that is meant to express how he feels about the
refreshing spiritual beverage Celia can offer him.
 He says that even if he could drink nectar from Jove's cup ("might I of Jove's nectar sup") he wouldn't;
he would rather have Celia's cup ("thine").
 While this is the gist of these lines, the word choices are a bit awkward. The speaker seems to be saying
"if I were allowed to drink Jove's nectar, I wouldn't 'change' the way things are, 'for' I prefer your
beverage, my lady."
 It is also possible that the speaker means he wouldn't exchange Jove's nectar for Celia's "nectar" of love,
an interpretation that contradicts a lot of what the speaker has been saying.
 Hold up! Who the heck is Jove? Good question. Jove is another name for the Greek god Zeus (or Jupiter
to the Romans), the king of gods who live on Mount Olympus. The gods on Olympus are big fans of
drinking "nectar."

Stanza 2

Lines 9-12

I sent thee, late, a rosy wreath,

Not so much honoring thee,
As giving it a hope that there
It could not withered be.

 The speaker stops talking about thirst and drinking. Now he moves on to tell a little story about his
relationship with the girl.
 He says he sent her a "rosy wreath." Why? "Not so much" because he wanted to show her how much he
likes her. Instead he wanted to give "it" (the wreath) the hope of everlasting life ("it could not withered
be").
 In other words, the speaker views Celia as some sort of divine or enchanted figure that can keep things
alive that will normally wither and die (like a wreath of flowers).
Lines 13-14

But thou thereon did'st only breathe,

And sent'st it back to me;

 Hmm. Seems like the speaker's experiment didn't quite turn out as planned. That "but" at the beginning
of line 13 tells us as much. The speaker basically says, "rather than keep the wreath to see if it wouldn't
die, she sent it back to me."
 Apparently, the woman breathed on the wreath before she sent it back.

Lines 15-16

Since when it grows, and smells, I swear,

Not of itself, but thee.

 The speaker knows that the woman must have breathed on the wreath "since" when it grows it smells,
not like a wreath of flowers, but like Celia.
 The phrase "I swear" is a bit odd. It sounds like the speaker is saying, "I swear it smells of thee," but that
is awkward because then we are left with an incomplete clause. For it to make sense, the speaker would
have had to say, "since when it grows, [it] smells, I swear, not of itself, but [of] thee." Of course, it is
possible that the speaker is engaging in the age-old poetic practice of leaving things out.
 Alternatively, the speaker could just be saying, "I swear," like when we say "it's true, I swear." Either
way, it's pretty clear what the lines mean.
 It's also important to note that the wreath still "grows." But wait. Don't you have to cut the flowers or
plants to make a wreath? So how could it still be growing? Well, it seems like the speaker's wish from
line 12 has come true (the wreath hasn't "withered"). Still, we bet he wasn't hoping to get the wreath
back

Themes 
1. Courtly Love 
The speaker talks about how he doesn't need a real drink, only a cup that has been kissed by the woman
he loves. The speaker thinks that Celia is so angelic or special that she can, potentially, keep a wreath of
flowers from withering. If "To Celia" is about love, however, it is also about how, sometimes, the things
we love can also let us down, if only a little bit. After all, Celia does return the speakers wreath. 
Jonson borrowed the conventions of courtly love for the poem but manipulated them to create his unique
voice. Traditionally, the lover in these poems is stricken by his lady's beauty, which causes him to
idealize her. Ever obedient to her wishes, the humble lover strives to be worthy of her. His feelings of
love ennoble him and lead him on the path to moral excellence. 
Jonson expresses the cult of the beloved in his poem through his vision of the lady whose kisses are
sweeter than the nectar of the gods and whose breath can grant immortality. However, this speaker does
not humble himself to his mistress. He has a calm assurance not found in conventional courtly love
poems. In the first stanza, he subtly acknowledges that his lady might be reluctant to express her love for
him when he suggests that she leave a kiss in the cup. Traditional lovers would prostrate themselves at
their lady's feet, but Jonson's speaker calmly provides an alternative to drinking to him with her eyes. 
 
2. MORTALITY 
While "To Celia" doesn't really talk about death in any direct way, it does glance at the sad fact that
things die. Think about it: the speaker sends the woman he admires a "rosy wreath" (9) because he wants
to see if she has the power to keep it from wilting and dying. The speaker also frequently compares the
 earthly or mortal realm with more divine, immortal things, suggesting that it's difficult to talk about one
without the other. 
The speaker contrasts mortal things with immortal things in this poem, and ultimately suggests that what
we may think is mortal turns out to possess qualities associated with the divine. 
The speaker's interest in immortality speaks to an underlying fear or obsession with mortality. 
 
3. SPIRITUALITY 
There is no obvious spirituality in "To Celia," but the speaker does talk about the soul and implies that
there is something spiritual and divine about love. He suggests that a show of love from Celia would be
a "drink divine," even more "divine" than the nectar, the drink of the immortal Greek and Roman gods.
While the speaker is all about elevating the spiritual over the material, and the "drink divine" of love
over actual beverages, he also can't separate spiritual from material; he can't talk about one without the
other.   
The speaker's emphasis on things like love and desire gives way at the end of the poem to an emphasis
on more mundane concerns, like how the wreath smells, the fact that it still grows, etc. In other words,
the poem seems to back out of its emphasis on the spiritual, on the "thirst that from the soul doth rise" 

FORM 
Structure and Rhyme Scheme 
The poem consists of two stanzas of eight lines each. There are three sentences: Lines 1 to 4, Lines 5 to 8, and
Lines 9 to 16. The first stanza centers on love as an ethereal, insubstantial elixir. The second centers on a wreath
sent to Celia by the poet. The rhyming lines are as follows: Lines 1 and 5 (eyes, rise); Lines 2, 4, 6, and 8 (mine,
wine, divine, thine), Lines 3 and 7 (cup, sup); Lines 9 and 13 (wreath, breathe), Lines 10, 12, 14, 16 (thee, be,
me, thee), and Lines 11 and 15 (there, swear). Notice that the rhyming lines of Stanza 1 match, in order of
occurrence, the rhyming lines of Stanza 2. For example, in Stanza 1, eyes at the end of the first line rhymes
with rise and the end of the fifth line. In Stanza 2, wreath at the end of the first line (Line 9) rhymes
with breathe at the end of the fifth line (Line 13) 
The rhyme scheme is abcb in the first stanza and defe in the second stanza. 
 
Meter 
The first line has eight syllables (four feet); the second, six syllables (three feet). The rest of the poem follows
this pattern: four feet, three feet; four feet, three feet; and so on. In each line (whether eight or six syllables), the
first syllable is unstressed, the second is stressed, the third is unstressed, the fourth is stressed, and so on. Thus,
the first line below is in iambic tetrameter; the second is in iambic trimeter. The following example
demonstrates the metric scheme of the first two lines. The unstressed syllables are in blue; the stressed are in red
capitals. Over each pair of syllables is a number representing the foot. Also, a black vertical line separates the
feet. 
.......1..............2................3..............4  
Drink TO..|..me ON..|..ly WITH..|..thine EYES...........(Iambic Tetrameter) 
....1........./........2..................3 
And I..|..will PLEDGE..|..with MINE............................(Iambic Trimeter) 
 
FIGURES OF SPEECH AND ALLUSIONS 
Metaphor: The first stanza is a metaphor comparing love to an ethereal elixir.  
Alliteration: kiss, cup; drink divine; rosy wreath; thou thereon; smell, swear 
Personification: The thirst . . . doth ask 
Allusion, Jove: In Roman mythology, another name for Jupiter, king of the gods. In Greek mythology, Jove's
name was Zeus. 
Allusion, Nectar: In Greek and Roman mythology, the gods drank nectar, a drink that preserved their
immortality. Nectar is derived from the Greek words nekros (dead body) and tar (overcoming or defeating).
Thus, nectar means overcoming death. 
 The Nightingale
By Sir Philip Sidney
The nightingale, as soon as April bringeth
Unto her rested sense a perfect waking,
While late bare earth, proud of new clothing, springeth,
Sings out her woes, a thorn her song-book making,
And mournfully bewailing,
Her throat in tunes expresseth
What grief her breast oppresseth
For Tereus’ force on her chaste will prevailing.
O Philomela fair, O take some gladness,
That here is juster cause of plaintful sadness:
Thine earth now springs, mine fadeth;
Thy thorn without, my thorn my heart invadeth.

Alas, she hath no other cause of anguish

But Tereus’ love, on her by strong hand wroken,
Wherein she suffering, all her spirits languish;
Full womanlike complains her will was broken.
But I, who daily craving,
Cannot have to content me,
Have more cause to lament me,
Since wanting is more woe than too much having.
O Philomela fair, O take some gladness,
That here is juster cause of plaintful sadness:
Thine earth now springs, mine fadeth;
Thy thorn without, my thorn my heart invadeth.

Analysis
The Nightingale is one of the famous poems of Sir Philip Sidney. It is a two-stanza, 24-line poem based on
book six of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The speaker addresses the mythical character Philomela, who has been
turned into a nightingale after her rape by her brother-in-law. The speaker observes the nightingale singing out
her woes (sorrows), and uses this as a jumping-off point to complain that he suffers even more than she does
because he is unable to express his pain. She can’t forget the event and its pain pinches her.

The poem treats song as the medium for emotional expression. It is about nightingale that "sings out her owes",
turning her pain into something beautiful: a book of songs. The speaker assumes that this release of emotion in
the form of birth helps to purify or cleanse the nightingale Philomela of her pain as she sings the world around
her goes from winter to spring.

The speaker argues that, while the nightingale is able to externalize her pain into song (her thorn is “without”),
he is un able to do so.

The speaker argues that, while the nightingale is able to externalize her pain into song (her thorn is “without”),
he is unable to do so. However, the very form of the poem belies this argument. “The Nightingale” itself is a
sequence of two stanzas set to song, and thus has a music and cadence of its own. Furthermore, it repeats the
same four-line refrain at the end of both stanzas, much like a song repeats it chorus. The speaker thus undercuts
his own message, in fact expressing his pain in song, too.

In stanza 1, the speaker narrates the nightingale’s experience as spring begins: in early April, she wakes up from
the slumber of winter and finds the formerly barren world in the “proud new clothing” of spring blossoms.
Despite the external world’s beauty, the nightingale cries out, turning her pain over her rape by Tereus into
song. In line 9, the speaker addresses the nightingale/Philomela, telling her to “Take some gladness” in the fact
that her sadness is not as great as his. While the world around her is waking up into spring, his world is fading.
This is because she is able to externalize her pain (her “thorn”) into song, while the speaker must keep his
inside.

In stanza 2, the speaker states that the nightingale/Philomea is sad only because Tereus has imposed his will on
her by force of strength. Her complaints of being raped and overpowered are “womanlike,” in contrast to the
speaker’s (manly) complaints. The speaker in fact suggests that he has more cause to complain: he suffers from
unfulfilled romantic and sexual longing or “wanting,” which is worse than “too much having” (in Philomela’s
case, having unwanted sexual intercourse). The final four lines of stanza two repeat the final four lines of stanza
one, once again stating that Philomela has less cause for lamentation than does the speaker.

Form and meter

The Nightingale begins with a 12 line stanza that can be understand as an octet followed by quartet. The first
four lines of this octave feature a mostly regular iambic pentameter (with an extra unstressed syllable at the end
of each line) and an ABAB rhyme scheme, thus mirroring the beauty of the nightingale’s song. Lines 5-8 break
from the pentameter meter, featuring three lines of tetrameter (also with an extra unstressed syllable at the end
of each line), followed by line 8, which features irregular hexameter. Furthermore, the rhyme sceme switches to
BAAB, and at the end of the poem a third new rhyme scheme appears CCAA.

Themes
Song

This poem is set to a song (“Non credo gia che pui infelice amanate”), as well as being about a nightingale’s
song. It thus treats song as the medium for emotional expression. The nightingale “sings out her woes,” turning
her pain into something beautiful: a book of songs. The speaker assumes that this release of emotion in the form
of art helps to purify or cleanse the nightingale/Philomela of her pain: as she sings, the world around her goes
from winter to spring.

The speaker argues that, while the nightingale is able to externalize her pain into song (her thorn is “without”),
he is unable to do so. However, the very form of the poem belies this argument. “The Nightingale” itself is a
sequence of two stanzas set to song, and thus has a music and cadence of its own. Furthermore, it repeats the
same four-line refrain at the end of both stanzas, much like a song repeats it chorus. The speaker thus undercuts
his own message, in fact expressing his pain in song, too.

Men's vs. Women's pain

The speaker compares a woman’s pain (Philomela’s) to a man’s (his own). In stating that the nightingale’s song
is the expression of pain, he suggests that women are not only able to express their emotions—they are expected
to. However, he casts doubt on the validity of women’s pain, stating that her only cause of pain is “Tereus’
love,” minimizing the anguish of rape. Furthermore, he calls her complaints “womanlike” in nature.

The speaker suggests that men’s pain, because it must be repressed, is worse than the pain that women suffer at
the hands of men. In particular, the speaker states that the source of his pain is “craving” and “wanting” a
woman’s love and touch. However, it is not socially sanctioned for him to speak of the pain of romantic and
sexual longing—or of any pain. Although men are the stronger sex, capable of overcoming and harming
women, they must suffer the “thorns” of their own pain internally.
Amoretti I: Happy ye leaves when as those lilly hands
By Edmund Spenser

Happy ye leaves when as those lilly hands,

Which hold my life in their dead doing might
Shall handle you and hold in loves soft bands,
Lyke captives trembling at the victors sight.
And happy lines, on which with starry light,
Those lamping eyes will deigne sometimes to look
And reade the sorrowes of my dying spright,
Written with teares in harts close bleeding book.
And happy rymes bath’d in the sacred brooke,
Of Helicon whence she derived is,
When ye behold that Angels blessed looke,
My soules long lacked foode, my heavens blis.
Leaves, lines, and rymes, seeke her to please alone,
Whom if ye please, I care for other none.
Analysis
This poem is taken from a combination of sonnets called Amoretti by Edmund Spenser.
Edmund Spenser was called the poets poet. Lots of poets were affected by Spenser. He remained protestant all
his life. He didn’t like the Catholics.
He is an idealist, yet also liked the English empire and the archaic language.
He didn’t have a certain labor. He was influenced by the puritans and even the Catholic thinkers.
In the first quatrain, Spenser is addressing the leaves (the papers he writes his poetry on). He is telling them that
they should be happy when the lily hands of his beloved catch them, the hands of his beloved that have power
over his life. His beloved power can kill him because it is dominant in his life (this is a metaphor).
He is telling the leaves that they should be happy when his beloved Elizabeth hold them like captives trembling
at victory.
In the second quatrain, Spenser addresses the lines. He wants his beloved Elizabeth to read his poetry and try to
understand how he is suffering because of his unreturned feelings towards her.
In the third quatrain, Spenser addresses the rhymes and tells them that they have to be happy because they are
bath’d in the brook of helicon, where his beloved comes from and where she baths with the muses. They should
be happy when his beloved Elizabeth looks at them with her beautiful eyes. He is comparing his beloved
Elizabeth to an angel and how he becomes blessed when he looks at her and how his soul looks sad because its
been an long time he didn’t see his beloved.
He is saying that his soul lacked food long time meaning that he is sad because he didn’t see his beloved
Elizabeth long time ago.
In the couplet, he is telling us that all the metaphors he used the leaves, the lines, the rhymes, asking them to
seek her, please her, and he doesn’t care about anything.
 Helicon: A mountain where Muses (goddess) used to go and take inspiration from there.
 The brooke is called Hippocrene. The name of the Spring.
 Leaves, lines, and rhymes are metaphors.

Form and Meter:

This poem is a Spenserian sonnet (combination of Italian and Shakespearian sonnet) composed of 14 lines, 3
quatrains and a couplet.’
The Spenserian sonnet, invented by sixteenth century English poet Edmund Spenser, cribs its structure from the
Shakespearian – three quatrains and a couplet, but employs a series of “couplet links” between quatrains, as
revealed in the rhyme scheme:
ABAB, BCBC, CDCD, EE. The Spenserian sonnet, through the interweaving of the quatrains, implicitly
recognized the Shakespearian sonnet into couplets, reminiscent of the Petrarchan. One reason was to reduce the
often excessive final couplet of the Shakespearian sonnet, putting less pressure on it to resolve the foregoing
argument, observation, or question.
There is also personification in this poem.
Happy rhymes, hands, eyes, …

Themes:
1. Love: He glorifies love in this poet. According to him his beloved Elizabeth has a large power on his
life and he gets his inspiration from her. He loves her so much. He says that if he touches the leaves of
his poetry, they should be happy.
2. Pride: He is very proud of his poetry and he has confidence. His poetry co es from the spring.
3. Glorification: He glorifies his beloved, his source of inspiration. He also glorifies his poetry, because he
believes that it comes from the spring of inspiration.
Sonnet 34 -
by Edmund Spenser

Like as a ship, that through the ocean wide,

By conduct of some star, doth make her way,
Whenas a storm hath dimmed her trusty guide,
Out of her course doth wander far astray:
So I, whose star, that wont with her bright ray
Me to direct, with clouds is overcast,
Do wander now, in darkness and dismay,
Through hidden perils round about me placed;
Yet hope I well that, when this storm is past,
My Helice, the loadstar of my life,
Will shine again, and look on me at last,
With lovely light to clear my cloudy grief.
Till then I wander careful, comfortless,
In secret sorrow, and sad pensiveness.

Analysis:
Edmund Spenser’s Amoretti chronicles his courtship with his wife Elizabeth Boyle.
Sonnet 34 appears to describe a break in Spenser’s relationship with Elizabeth; it seems like they had a fight
and Spenser is biding his time until she forgives him. Spenser uses the analogy of a ship losing its way during a
storm to convey the separation between him and Elizabeth.
In the first Stanza, he is comparing someone to a ship traveling through a large ocean with no land is sight uses
the stars to guide its way, but when the stormy clouds block the stars light the ship will stray far from its course.
The “her” mentioned in this stanza is referring to the ship; in the English language most (if not all) modes of
transportation rev described with feminine pronouns.
So, Spenser would be the ship that has gone off course, because his beloved’s light is no longer shining on him.
A storm is a clever way to describe an argument because arguments can be described as being dark, angry,
heated, wet (meaning crying).
In the second stanza, because his guiding light has been concealed by the dark clouds of the storm without her
light he is left vulnerable to the hidden dangers surrounding him. The storm has left him without his beloved to
guide him. He misses her bright ray, which can be interpreted as he misses her beautiful soul, and with
personality.
He is consumed with sadness that he lost his way and is left defenseless.
In the third stanza, the poet hopes that when this storm passes his beloved’s light will shine upon him aging, and
guide him back to the port (to her), so that they can be together once again.
The last two lines are known as the rhyming couplet which functions as a way to sum up the entire poem is a
few words as possible.
Spenser is telling his beloved that until she forgives him, he will wander aimlessly all alone, thinking sorrowful
thoughts.

Form and Meter:

This poem is a sonnet. It consists of 14 lines with a specific rhyme and a specific rhythm.
It is divided into 3 quatrains (4 lines each) and a couplet.
It follows the form of Iambic pentameter. (5 pairs weak / strong …)
The rhyme scheme is ABAB BCBC CDCD EE.
It is called Spenserian sonnet.

Figures of speech:
1. Metaphor:
A. Star: is compared with the poet’s beloved.
B. The ocean: is compared with life itself.
C. Clouds, storms and perils: are compared to life and love problems.
D. Landing: is love again.
2. Smile: we have two words “like” and “as”.
3. Personification: the ship and the stars are personified to have human qualities.

Themes:
1. Hope: with all the arguments and problems, he still has hope, when he tells his beloved that until she
forgives him, he will wander aim lessly all alone, thinking sorrowful thoughts. This shoes us that with
all the storms and all the darkness, he still has hope that he will reunite with his beloved Elizabeth.

2. Unrequited love: this means love from one side.

Throughout the poem, we can understand that the poet is talking about his love to his beloved Elizabeth
and he never talks about Elizabeth’s love to him. It seems that Elizabeth wasn’t in love with him the
time he wrote this poem.

The main purpose behind writing this poem is to reach the land and also to reach the correct way with
his beloved. We can see the atmosphere of melancholy, the mood is dark and sad but at the end there is
hope.
Sonnet 29: When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes
By William Shakespeare

When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,

I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
On Shakespeare. 1630
By John Milton

What needs my Shakespeare for his honoured bones,

The labor of an age in pilèd stones,
Or that his hallowed relics should be hid
Under a star-ypointing pyramid?
Dear son of Memory, great heir of fame,
What need’st thou such weak witness of thy name?
Thou in our wonder and astonishment
Hast built thyself a live-long monument.
For whilst to th’ shame of slow-endeavouring art,
Thy easy numbers flow, and that each heart
Hath from the leaves of thy unvalued book
Those Delphic lines with deep impression took,
Then thou, our fancy of itself bereaving,
Dost make us marble with too much conceiving;
And so sepúlchred in such pomp dost lie,
That kings for such a tomb would wish to die.
"Leave me, O Love, which reachest but to dust"
By Sir Philip Sidney from Certain Sonnets
Leave me, O Love, which reachest but to dust;
And thou, my mind, aspire to higher things;
Grow rich in that which never taketh rust;
Whatever fades but fading pleasure brings.
Draw in thy beams and humble all thy might
To that sweet yoke where lasting freedoms be;
Which breaks the clouds and opens forth the light,
That doth both shine and give us sight to see.
O take fast hold; let that light be thy guide
In this small course which birth draws out to death,
And think how evil becometh him to slide,
Who seeketh heav'n, and comes of heav'nly breath.
Then farewell, world; thy uttermost I see:
Eternal Love, maintain thy life in me.