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Sonnet 30 by Edmund Spenser

Original Analysis

The narrator in the poem is helplessly in love

with a woman who does not have the same

feelings for him. While he constantly showers

her with love, affection and attention, all she

does is disregard his existence. Instead of

letting this discourage him, the man allows his

love for the woman to grow stronger, while

she seems to distance herself from him more.

The more he falls in love with her and the

more he tries to be with her, the colder her

heart becomes.

Original Lines

My love is like to ice, and I to fire;

How comes it then that this her cold so great

Is not dissolvd through my so hot desire,

But harder grows the more I her entreat?

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

That fire, which all things melts, should harden

ice,

Follow-Up Analysis

The only way the research disagreed with the

original analysis is that it stated (in some

cases) that the poem could be an example of

courtly love. Courtly love is represented by a

situation in the 12th

to 14th

centuries where a

man, usually a knight, falls in love with a

woman who is already married. The knight

falls head over heels for the woman who cant

return his love, simply because she already

gave her heart away to another man.

Individual Meanings

He is in love with someone who is very cold

and has no interest in him whatsoever. His

love, on the other hand, is like a raging fire,

that only grows stronger and never burns out.

Even though her heart is cold, my love for her

has not been able to get through to her and

have her change her mind. Instead, she

pushes herself further away and only becomescolder.

On the other hand, why does the coldness of

her heart not weaken my love for her? I love

her all the same, even more than I did at the

start.

My desire for her only becomes more

prevalent and my love for her only grows and

gets stronger

What stranger thing can I say

That my love can push her further away

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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 the course of kind.

Literary Devices

Alliteration

How comes it then that this her cold so great

RhymeBut harder grows the more I her entreat?

Or how comes it that my exceeding heat

Simile

My love is like to ice, and I to fire

Imagery

Or how comes it that my exceeding heat is not

delayed by her heart frozen cold

Exaggeration

But that I burn in much more in boiling sweat

And the coldness of her heart can make my

lover for her grow so much stronger?

The honest love coming from someone with

good intentions has the possibility to changethe way the woman is behaving. It can cause

her to not act like ice, but instead, open up to

him and accept his love.

Alliteration is when multiple words in the

same sentence have the same beginning

letter. In this case, then thatthis is the

example of alliteration.

Rhyme is when two or more words have the

same ending sound. In this case, rhyme occurs

at the end of each line, and the example given

is entreat and heat. Both words end in

-eat and therefore make the same sound.

A smile is a comparison of two things, usually

unrelated, using the words like or as. In this

example, Edmund is comparing the situation

of his rejected love to the simple elements ofice and fire.

Imagery is a literary device that is used to

paint a picture in your head while you are

reading something. In this case, you can see a

heart, covered with ice crystals, being

attacked by the flames of a fire.

Short and simple, an exaggeration is an

overstatement. It blows a situation, or thing,out of proportion to make it seem more

dramatic than it really is. In this case, boiling

sweat is the exaggeration, for sweat cannot

be hot enough to be boiling.

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Tone

Hopeful and Devoted

Theme

Love too eagerly given becomes less and

less appealing

When in love, rejection will only make the

lover more passionate

The paradox of certain situations may be

inevitable

The tone of this sonnet is very hopeful and

devoted, for the author continuously talks as

though he is in awe about the situation he and

the woman are in. Not once does he say a

negative thing about her not returning his

love, but only mentions that her coldnessmakes his love grow stronger. He is devoted to

her and only her, for he is hopeful that one

day she will come around.

In every relationship there should be mutual

feelings between the two people. If the

feelings differ, especially to the extent they do

in the poem, the person not in love will

ultimately be pushed further and further

away. Nobody wants to be the center ofattention of someone who they are not fond

of. Constantly having that persons undivided

attention could end up getting annoying. This

exact thing happens with the woman in the

poem, for the more the man loves her, the

colder her heart becomes.

A common phrase when it comes to

relationships is love is blind. Sometimes,

when a person is madly in love, they may not

realize that the other person does not sharethe same feelings. Once the lover does realize

this, however, he will most likely view it as a

challenge to take it upon himself to gain the

love of that specific person. This challenge will

ultimately make the lover more passionate

and prevent him from stopping until he

reaches his goal

The way paradox is shown in this sonnet is by

neither the man nor the woman backingdown. While you would expect one of them to

give in to the other, the poem ends by both of

them still having total and complete opposite

feelings for one another.

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Works Cited

"Famous Love Poems." Famous Love Poems. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2012.

"Sonnets & Essays - GGCA English." GGCA English. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2012.