Amoretti: Sonnet 6 Lyrics
Be nought dismayd that her unmoved mind
doth still persist in her rebellious pride:
such love, not lyke to lusts of baser kynd,
the harder wonne, the firmer will abide.
The durefull Oake, whose sap in not yet dride,
is long ere it conceive the kindling fyre:
but when it once doth burne, it doth divide
great heat, and makes his flames to heaven aspire.
So hard it is to kindle new desire
in gentle brest that shall endure for ever:
deepe is the wound, that dints the parts entire
with chast affects, that naught but death can sever.
Then thinke not long in taking litle paine,
to knit the knot, that ever shall remiane.
doth still persist in her rebellious pride:
such love, not lyke to lusts of baser kynd,
the harder wonne, the firmer will abide.
The durefull Oake, whose sap in not yet dride,
is long ere it conceive the kindling fyre:
but when it once doth burne, it doth divide
great heat, and makes his flames to heaven aspire.
So hard it is to kindle new desire
in gentle brest that shall endure for ever:
deepe is the wound, that dints the parts entire
with chast affects, that naught but death can sever.
Then thinke not long in taking litle paine,
to knit the knot, that ever shall remiane.
About
Genius Annotation
Sonnet 6 of the Amoretti is an example of Spenser at his word-weaving best (and Spenser’s best is essentially the best possible).
Here, he braids negatives throughtout the first thirteen lines of the sonnet, so that at the end he forms a positive “knot that ever shall remaine.”
Shakespeare does something similar in his “Sonnet 116.”
Sound is important in this sonnet – try it out loud if you don’t get it at first and let no one say the bards didn’t know how to use their noughts, nots, and naughts to make very nice positive knots.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
- 6.Amoretti: Sonnet 6
- 90.Anacreontics
- 91.Epithalamion
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