The poem
THrise happie she, that is so well assured Vnto her selfe and setled so in hart: that nether will for better be allured, ne feard with worse to any chaunce to start, But like a steddy ship doth strongly part the raging waues and keepes her course aright: ne ought for tempest doth from it depart, ne ought for fayrer weathers false delight. Such selfe assurance need not feare the spight, of grudging foes, ne fauour seek of friends: but in the stay of her owne stedfast might, nether to one her selfe nor other bends. Most happy she that most assured doth rest, but he most happy who such one loues best.
Elizabethan woman
Just a few days ago, I read Virginia Woolf s A Room of One s Own, and today I remember it after reading Spenser s sonnet. A lot of Elizabethan poets praised strong women, and we admire those kind of women. But now I wonder if such women truly existed.