Elizabethan sonnets, in general, can be thought of possessing a united concern with the theme of

time, love and beauty. In this essay, we will look towards examples from the sonnets of Spenser,
Wyatt and Sidney to understand the similarity of treatment they give to these subjects.

The ruthless nature of time seems to be a subject that is common to many sonnets of this period.
They all are equally united in their opinion that time is a ruthless ravager of all existence. Spenser
states in his Sonnet 75, Spenser states-

“A mortal thing so to immortalize;

For I myself shall like to this decay,
And eke my name be wiped out likewise.”

We can understand from these lines that to Spenser, the inevitable decay of mortal things is a
concern here. Spenser in these lines establish the ostensible supremacy of time, but then he proceeds
to undercut this supremacy by suggesting one way to fight against time. He states-

“but you shall live by fame:

My verse your vertues rare shall eternize,
And in the heavens write your glorious name:
Where whenas death shall all the world subdue,
Our love shall live, and later life renew." - Sonnet 75 by Edmund Spenser.

It seems Spenser in these lines establishes the supremacy of poetry against time. Poetry seems to be
the only mode of existence which is immune from the decay that is inevitable to all physical existence.

A second theme that seems to be common in Elizabethan sonnets is the concern with the nature of
love.

“There I to her as th' author of my bliss,

Will build an altar to appease her ire:
And on the same my heart will sacrifice,
Burning in flames of pure and chaste desire:
The which vouchsafe, O goddess, to accept,
Amongst thy dearest relics to be kept.” - (Sonnet 22 by Edmund Spenser)

We can understand from these lines the religious tone love took in the sonnets. It seems that the
subject of the sonnet is posited as some unattainable and incomprehensible God, while the speaker,
the writer of the sonnet posits themselves as a weak worshipper, merely capable of beseeching their
god to reciprocate the worshiper's love. The word “Sacrifice” deserves increased attention in this
poem. The worshipper in the Elizabethan sonnet seems to take the stance of an agonized sufferer.
One cannot help but draw a connection between the poet’s words and the doctrine of the
mortification of the flesh, following which some minority Christians practice self-flagellation as a
means of punishing themselves, cleansing themselves and appeasing God. Sidney for example writes-

“That she, dear she, might take some pleasure of my pain,—

Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know,
Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain”

Again we encounter a hope that the pain of the poet, materialized into the verses would result in
some form of mercy from their worshipped subject. There is a constant magnification of the subject
from a mortal to the realm of some ethereal being.

The nature of beauty seems to be another concern for the Elizabethan poets. In sonnet 55 by Edmund
Spenser’s Amoretti we find-

“So oft as I her beauty do behold,

And therewith do her cruelty compare,
I marvel of what substance was the mould
The which her made at once so cruel-fair.”

Spenser echoes one of the common concerns of the Elizabethan sonnet poets. Since the subjects of
the sonnets are exalted to the state of god-hood since the godly subject of the sonnet is shown as
unreachable and the poets stances themselves as an agonized worshiper, it is logical that the question
of ‘how can someone be so cruel and beautiful ?’ will develop. Beauty seems to be shown as a trap.
The poets are trapped by the beauty of their romantic interest and they are incapable of escaping
from this trap. The poet must relinquish all hopes of escape and must surrender themselves to the life
of agony that stems from an unreachable beauty of their romantic interest.

In conclusion, In this essay, we explored the way Elizabethan sonnets explored the concept of Love,
beauty and time. We saw examples from Edmund Spenser, Thomas Wyatt and Phillip Sidney. We
inferred from the examples that Elizabethan sonnets seem to exalt their loved one into the realm of
divinity, they saw themselves as subjects under the rule of the beautiful god. They saw themselves as
merely capable of sacrificing themselves to the god. Time, they saw as the end of all things beautiful
and mortal. They further would claim that the only way we mortals can fight against time is through
poetry, their beauty would be forever enshrined inside the poetry of the poet. They treated beauty as
both a subject of praise, worship and also fear. The poet is the wondering prey that falls into the trap
of the beautiful predator. They saw their loved one’s beauty as a trap in which a victim might fall if
they are not careful. Once they fall into this trap, it seems escape is impossible.