Well, In sonnet 30 what are the three questions that show his perplexity? I can't find it :x. Oh, and how is the final couplet answering the questions of the poem?

Sonnet XXX
by Edmund Spenser

MY loue is lyke to yse, and I to fyre;
how comes it then that this her cold so great
is not dissolu'd through my so hot desyre,
but harder growes the more I her intreat?
Or how comes it that my exceeding heat
is not delayd by her hart frosen cold:
but that I burne much more in boyling sweat,
and feel my flames augmented manifold?
What more miraculous thing may be told
that fire which all things melts, should harden yse:
and yse which is congeald with sencelesse cold,
should kindle fyre by wonderfull deuyse.
Such is the powre of loue in gentle mind,
that it can alter all the course of kynd.

1. Why does her ice become harder in my hot desire?
2. Why does my fire become hotter by her frozen heart?
3. What more miraculous thing can you find than fire hardening ice and ice kindling fire.

Love can change how things act.

Now write that up as a decent essay with quotes to prove it.

Upgraded version:


My love is like to ice, and I to fire;
how comes it then that this her cold so great
is not dissolv'd through my so hot desire,
but harder grows the more I her intreat?

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:
and ice which is congeal'd 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.

Why doesn't love obey the laws of physics ie fire melts ice and ice cools fire? Yuu'd expect her lack of response to put me off and cool my ardour . Instead the more I burn for her, the more she freezes me out., and the more she freezes me out, the more my passion builds.

There is one question on these lines in each stanza, and the final one say love is so powerful it breaks and re-forms all the rules.

i need desperate help with sonnet 30 and finding the poetic devices for the whole sonnet!!!!

My love is like to ice, and I to fire;
(lots of similes & metaphors - he is hot & she is cold. see Rolling Stones - "I'm so hot for her and she's so cold".)
how comes it then that this her cold so great*
is not dissolv'd through my so hot desire,
but harder (pun on harder?) grows the more I her intreat*?

(*=Inversions in pursuit of rhyme.)

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:
and ice which is congeal'd 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.

In Spencer's "Sonnet 30," the poet compares two elements, fire and ice, which are Similar, opposite, unnatural or sequential, need some help?

Opposite. You really didn't know that? Well, maybe ice feels like fire for the first second or so, on the tip of your nose (or whatever), so they could be similar. I think one of the regions in Dante's hell was icy, too, so I guess they could be sequential as well. Could they ever be unnatural? Not here on earth, I don't think.

The tenth circle of hell, containing traitors is frozen, until you pass Satan at the centre of the earth and begin climbing up rock to reach the foot of Mount Purgatory in the antipodes.

what is the mood of Shakespeare's "Sonnet 73" is ti wistful, bitter, suspenseful or melancholy. i need a little help!

Chad, go here:

[www.shakespeares-sonnets.com]


Les

Sonnet 30: What "type" of poem is this? By quatrains, what are the paradoxes? What is the function of the couplet?

What type? Look at the title- it's a sonnet.

Paradoxes are things like- my love is ice and I'm fire-

pam

i need help with sonnet XVI by Edmund Spencer

dear Edmund...i want to ask you if your name is Edmund O'Neill

I study English at college in Poland and I"m looking for adrress in the internet about summaries of English Literature.Maybe sb know where I can find it?

There are many of them. Do you have a particular time period in mind?

[www.lib.lsu.edu]

I was wondering if you could help me translate sonnet # 64.

Sure, but in what language do you want the translation?


Coming to kiss her lips, (such grace I found)
Me seemed I smelled a garden of sweet flowers,
That dainty odors from them threw around
For damsels fit to deck their lovers' bowers.

Her lips did smell like unto Gillyflowers,
Her ruddy cheeks like unto Roses red:
Her snowy brows like budded Bellamores,
Her lovely eyes like Pinks but newly spread.

Her goodly bosom like a strawberry bed,
Her neck like to a bunch of Columbines:
Her breast like Lillies, ere their leaves be shed,
Her nipples like young blossomed Jasmines.

Such fragrant flowers do give most odorous smell,
But her sweet odor did them all excel.


I'm not sure how flowers can have something other than an odorous smell, but I guess we will have to forgive the redundancy, along with the (shudder) atrocious inversion in the last line and (shiver) strange choice of rhymes. More puzzling is the odor of the lady's nipples, but I'm thinking she may have put on a lot of different perfumes, all alluring it would seem. Her own natural odor could be perspiration or perhaps emanated from a lower region. I will leave further speculation to others.

It seems to come down to 'she smells good!' (in an era before Listerine, toothpaste, and regular bathing?)

pam

what makes a sonnet different from other poetry? Need help in writing one its for class

Here you go Dorothy:

[www.sonnets.org]


Les

i am trying to write an essay on this but i donīt know whether this is possible or i am completly wrong. So is Spenser influenced by Dante?
thank you

You could probably argue that everyone up to TS Eliot was influenced by Dante, but it is probably not a factor in Sonnet 30, if that is your reference.

Love defies all sense and logic. There are many oxymorons in this sonnet. Why is it that his "burning" passion can't melt her cold heart. and the colder she gets the more his passion burns.

Anon, the riddle is solved partially in the last two lines:

Such is the power of love in gentle mind,
that it can alter all the course of kind.


The author is suggesting that the power of love is so strong that it can defy the laws of nature.



Les

Les, I know, that's what I was saying. I was trying to help someone else understand it. But then I realized that those questions were posted a long time ago, and have since been helped. Thank you though.

>I guess we will have to forgive the redundancy, along with the (shudder) atrocious inversion in the last line ...

Turns out I owe an apology to Edmund for this dig, and also for similar criticisms of William Shakespeare, John Donne, Christopher Marlowe and many others from the era. They all apparently were given the textbook Epitome of Tropes and Schemes by Susenbrotus, which encouraged just this type of construction:

[en.wikipedia.org]

I have not read the (in)famous tome, and I am not likely to, since the only copy I saw on the net was some $600.00! Still, I hereby most abjectly apologize to all the 16th and 17th century poets I have abused for employing such a construction: mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!