My love is like to ice
Love sometimes seems unattainable but you don't truly know it is out of reach unless you try, Edmund Spencer portrays this message in his poem "My Love Is Like to Ice." This poem was taken out from his literary work the "Amoretti," which was written as a part of the courtship of his second wife Elizabeth Boyle. This poem can be seen as his struggle for love, knowing the intent of the poet's reason for writing such beautiful poetry gives us the advantage when analyzing. Spenser uses two interesting elements to convey his feelings and emotions in reference to love to show us why love is mutual and shouldn't be given up upon. Symbolism is seen through out the poem very often in respect to human emotions and feelings. The nature of these two elements shows the reader that there is no such thing as impossible love. Spencer splits his poem into four different sections, each section being a question, which illustrate human emotions and feelings through different states of love. The first section carries its own tone and mood, set by the first line, "My love is like to ice, and I to fire," Spenser chooses two elements that are incompatible and completely opposite from each other giving the feeling of impo
The Third section has a total turn around through the mood and the tone. The poet's determination is now showing affect. "What more miraculous thing may be told that fire which all things melts, should harden ice:" Miraculous connotes marvel and wonder, something that wasn't expected. Because of the first and second section, the poem carried the tone of depression and despair. Spenser's "ice and fire" metaphor is very complex switching from its metaphorical and literal meanings throughout the poem. Ice denotes love while fire symbolizes the poet himself. The poet states that fire hardened the ice, but how can that happen? Fire melts ice, it does not harden it, however, changing the symbols around and into the metaphorical perspective it could happen. The Poet produced the heat that caused the warm attractions, the burning passions, the melting desires that strengthened and hardened the love between him and his loved one. Through the second section, the poet sets the mood towards perseverance, Spenser picks ice not just because of its general characteristics, but because it has many different forms such as ice, water, and steam, identical to love. When fire and ice are present together, the ice does not just melt instantaneously. Time is a special part of the process, similar to love. Secondly, even if the ice melts there is still water after, and even still there is steam. However, water cannot turn into steam without fire or heat. Putting that into a metaphorical sense, love takes time, perseverance, and determination. It seems, as the poet does not quite understand that yet during this time in the poem. "But I burn much more in boiling s
Some common words found in the essay are:
Elizabeth Boyle, , Love Ice, Edmund Spencer, ice fire, fire melts, love ice, fire melts ice, melts ice, love love, water steam, ice melts, towards love, human emotions, emotions feelings, human emotions feelings,
Approximate Word count = 1114
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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