Poetry is the genre of literature which expresses the satirical style of Edmund Spenser's writing. Edmund Spenser is one of the most renowned poets in the Renaissance Era. His descriptions of the earth's beauty, mesmerized people and made them further appreciate nature. Spenser constantly mentions humanism, and how people, including himself, deserve human emotions of love and desire. Edmund Spenser’s most famous poem, Amoretti XXX: My Love is like to ice, and I to fire captures all of these key aspects, which made this poem specifically, truly a piece of art. Throughout his works, Edmund Spenser utilizes his emotions to express his philosophical beliefs on beauty and humanism which are consistent themes within the Renaissance Era.
The earth's beauty is an aspect in life that can be used to represent many different emotions and thoughts. Edmund Spenser expresses the beauty of the earth in his writing ,which is consistent within the Renaissance Era because during this time, it was believed that everything emerged from natural properties. He uses aspects of nature when talking about his relationship with his love interest, Elizabeth Boyle, “That fire, which all things melts, should harden ice,
And ice, which is congeal’d with senseless cold, Should kindle fire by wonderful device?”
(Spenser, 10-12). This excerpt from the poem illustrates how he refers to himself as fire and the woman as ice. Fire is essentially supposed to melt ice. Even with his countless romantic gestures, he cannot melt her frozen cold heart. Edmund Spenser displays some confusion later on in this work, “Or how comes it that my exceeding heat Is not allayed by her heart-frozen cold,” (Spenser, 5-6). Spenser cannot comprehend why all of his efforts to impress Elizabeth are not making her fall in love with him. In William J. Long’s article, The Industrial Revolution's Affect on Art, Spenser is recognized as a poet who focuses on expressing beauty with captivating descriptions, “Spenser's sense of ideal beauty or, as Lanier expressed it, "the beauty of holiness and the holiness of beauty," is perhaps his greatest poetic quality. He is the poet-painter of the Renaissance; he fills his pages with descriptions of airy loveliness, as Italian artists covered the high ceilings of Venice with the reflected splendor of earth and heaven. Moreover, his sense of beauty found expression in such harmonious lines that one critic describes him as having set beautiful figures moving to exquisite music” (Long). Edmund Spenser can be compared to an artist as he paints beautiful visualizations in the reader's mind with his choice of words. These aspects of nature are key in this poem because they are two opposing forces. He utilizes these two opposing forces, fire and ice, to contrast the emotions within his relationship with Elizabeth Boyle. In the Renaissance Era, it was believed that nature was the foundation for everything as expressed in Christopher Witcombe’s article, Art and Theory in Baroque Europe: Wolfflin – Renaissance and Baroque Style, “Now nature is meant not so much as the reality of visual experience and not so much as a divine or irrational power holding sway over human life; now it is meant first of all as a cosmic system, constructed of principles, of laws, that govern the evolutions of celestial bodies, as well as the growth of plants. The term "nature" did not mean now an inherent magical power, but rather an order discovered by the searching mind and an analytical eye” (Witcombe). Nature is very important and humans must learn to cherish and respect nature. Humans cannot be egocentric because they are only part of the cosmic system or universe. Spenser is a role model because he cerishes the beauty of the earth and he wants the people of his time to follow in his footsteps.
Humanism is an outlook on life which focuses on humans instead of the divine forces such as God and the supernatural. Edmund Spenser's expression of humanistic beliefs emphasizes human needs such as love and desire. Humanism is a system of thought which is important to humans in order to express emotion, and it is used consistently throughout the Renaissance Era. Edmund Spenser cannot comprehend why he is not desirable to Elizabeth Boyle, “How comes it then that this her cold so great Is not dissolved through my so hot desire, But harder grows the more I her entreat?” (Spenser, 2-4). Unfortunately, all of his efforts are just pushing her away and making her more cold towards him. He becomes frustrated with his emotional turmoil. At the end of the poem, Spenser expresses his opinion on the emotion of love, “Such is the power of love in gentle mind, That it can alter all the course of kind.”(Spenser,13-14). The author comes to the conclusion that love is very powerful and it can change one’s life forever. In Edmund Spenser’s situation, all his decisions and actions are focused on his infatuation with Elizabeth Boyle. His view on how important a relationship is to him becomes his main focus which is emphasized in W.D. Melaney's article, Spenser’s Poetic Phenomenology: Humanism and the Recovery of Place, “Spenser's originality as a Renaissance poet, however, has much to do with his use of literary procedures that express but also complicate his relationship to traditional humanism. While the heart of Spenser's "Book of Courtesy" enacts a Neo-Platonic movement from the lower levels of temporal existence to an exalted vision of spiritual perfection, this same section can be read along phenomenological lines as a mysterious adventure that embraces self and other, personality and community, aesthetics and ethics, in a sequence of images that opens up a new interpretation of imaginative fulfillment” (Melaney). Spencer’s writing is based mostly on human emotion and his openness about his personal feelings. This provides insight into the emotional rollercoaster ride that he is experiencing while he is trying to woo Elizabeth Boyle. In the Renaissance period, everyone was encouraged to believe solely in humanism as represented in Robert Wilde’s article, Renaissance Humanism, “But what developed in Renaissance Humanism was not a set of second generation mimics: Renaissance Humanism began to use their knowledge, love, maybe even obsession of the past to change how they and others saw and thought about their own era. It was not pastiche, but a new consciousness, including new historical perspective which gave a historically based alternative to ‘medieval’ ways of thinking” (Wilde). The Renaissance Era was a time in history which revolutionized previous ways of thinking. This new era was an attempt to transform the past antiquated ways of thinking into a modern society. Edmund Spenser is someone who uses his artistic qualities in modern ways to emphasize the importance of having love and desire in one’s life.
In conclusion, Edmund Spenser is a poet who represents the Renaissance Era exquisitely, because nature and humanism are the primary components within this time period. Throughout his works, the importance of humanism and the beauty of the earth are his inspirational foundations.