Sonnet 30 from Amoretti

by Edmund Spenser

AP/H English 12

Dercher

Mini – Read

Reading Indicators

R.1.3.4

R.1.4.5

R.1.4.9

R.1.4.10

My love is like to ice, and I to fire; How comes it then that this her cold so great Is not dissolved through my so hot desire, But harder grows the more I her entreat?

5 Or how comes it that my exceeding heat Is not delayed by her heart frozen cold, But that I burn much more in boiling sweat, And feel my flames augmented manifold? What more miraculous thing may be told

10 That fire which all things melts, should harden ice, And ice which is congealed with senseless cold, Should kindle fire by wonderful device? Such is the power of love in gentle mind, That it can alter all the course of kind.

1. Which of the following terms best describes the device Spenser uses when he combines “fire” and “ice” in this sonnet?

a. meterb. metaphorc. paradoxd. allegory

2. The image of “ice” refers to thea. suitor’s passionb. love between two peoplec. suitor’s despaird. woman’s indifference

3. The sonnet expresses wonder at thea. transience of human lifeb. contradictory nature of some great truthsc. complicated nature of romanced. importance of remembering experiences

• This is an English sonnet known as the Spenserian sonnet. What is the rhyme scheme?

• Is that the only difference you note compared to the Shakespearean sonnet?

• Rhyme scheme– abab bcbc cdcd ee

(Demands four words for two of the rhymes – more demanding than the Shakespearean model in this regard)