Amoretti Paper
Edmund Spencer’s Amoretti uses a lot of metaphors in order to describe how he feel’s and see’s his future wife, Elizabeth Boyle. The sonnets don’t just speak about her natural beauty, but also her effect on the world that Spencer witnesses. In sonnet XXXVII, he uses her hair as a metaphor, specifically as an equal to treasure. Spencer describes his love for this physical trait, while also understanding that her hair is used to not only to appreciate and marvel at, but to also seduce and use in her own power.
Treasure has always been a sought after luxury. It represents beauty and importance for whoever wears/owns it. Spencer describes her “golden tresses” as a “net of gold” (lines 1-2). Nets (along with treasure) trap individuals. There have always been stories of people looking for treasure, and in many cases the seeking of treasure can ultimately lead to many un-thought of consequences. Spencer uses the metaphor to explain that while he himself looks at her hair as gold, he understands why that description in itself is dangerous. “Is it that men’s frayle eyes, which gaze too bold, she may entangle in that golden snare”, enfolding their “weaker harts” (lines 6-8) In these lines, spencer expresses a couple of points. One of his points is that he neither the first nor will be the last to be seduced by Elizabeth’s beautiful hair. Another point he makes is that her hair has been used to seduce and trap men. Within the lines, spencer points out that weaker men, are easily seduced and taken advantage of by beautiful women, the same way that the quest for gold/treasure can torment weak men. This is a way for her to use her natural beauty as a way to manipulate and control men in a male dominant society. Spencer gets it right, unlike other men trying to woo Elizabeth, because he understands that there is more to Elizabeth than her n...