Sonnet Ix Essay

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CC British Literature Professor Scott 10/10/10 Sonnet Explication Paper In Edmund Spenser’s Amoretti Sonnet Nine, Spenser uses imagery grab the reader’s attention by explaining how the sight he is seeing is incomparable to anything on this earth. He also uses symbolism in the same manner to create a unique image in the readers mind. This is an English style poem which means it contains three quatrains and a couplet at the end. Spenser was known for writing his sonnets in the English style. Spenser uses caesuras in this sonnet to emphasize that what he is seeing has no comparison even to the most marvelous sights on this earth. The rhyme scheme that Spenser uses in this sonnet is ABACCDCDDDDDEE. The way Spenser combines the imagery and symbolism gives the reader very clear image and explains to them that the sight he is seeing truly has no comparison. In the first quatrain of the sonnet, Spenser introduces the reader to the amazing sight that he is seeing. In the first two lines of the sonnet Spenser says, “Long-While I sought to what I might compare those powerful eyes, which lighten my dark spirits.” You can tell by the language he uses that Spenser is looking at a beautiful girl that has eyes that can lift a man from even the darkest of spirits to the brightest. In many of Spenser’s sonnets, he expands on one particular feature of a girl he loves and explains how amazing that feature is by using symbolism. In the third and fourth line of the sonnet Spenser says, “yet find I nought on earth which I dare, resemble th’ image of their goodly light.” This tells the reader right away that there is nothing on this earth that can compare to the marvelous sight of these beautiful eyes that this girl obtains. He also states in line four of the sonnet that her eyes give off goodly light, which elaborates on the point that they can brighten up ones soul and
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