Sonnet 54

Portrait of Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser 1552–1599

Of this worlds theatre in which we stay, My love like the spectator ydly sits Beholding me that all the pageants play, Disguysing diversly my troubled wits. Sometimes I joy when glad occasion fits, And mask in myrth lyke to a comedy: Soone after when my joy to sorrow flits, I waile and make my woes a tragedy. Yet she, beholding me with constant eye, Delights not in my merth nor rues my smart: But when I laugh she mocks, and when I cry She laughs and hardens evermore her heart. What then can move her? if nor merth nor mone, She is no woman, but a senceless stone.

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  1. Greg United States

    I believe this poem is incorrectly reproduced. I'm being a bit picky here but reproduced with its original spellings the sound patterns and wordplay are much more evident. Also the words Theatre, Comedy, and Tragedy should be capitalized, as Spenser did in his original writing. They bring attention to the central metaphor of the first two paragraphs.
    As for analysis, it uses the Petrarchan love convention of a man complaining about his lady's coldness. He uses the theatre metaphor to discribe his changing mood and describe his lady's lack of emotion. Yet there is a playful undercurrent as in the last line he compares his lover to a senseless stone with a cry of mock frustration.

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