Originally Posted by
stlukesguild
Spenser's Amoretti is a series of sonnets that differs in a number of ways from other sonnet cycles. Spenser's Amoretti immortalizes and chronicles his courtship of his wife-to-be, Elizabeth Boyle. As such... the lovers are real... and not merely a poet's invention as in many Renaissance cycles, nor are we witness to the frustration of the lover/poet yearning for some unattainable woman... another common conceit from at least Dante and Petrarch onward. The poems also reveal a distinct development of the lover's relationship over the course of time, beginning with disdain and rejection, to interest, to friendship, to the full bloom of love. Spenser concluded the cycle with the Epithalamion in celebration of their marriage.
Understanding the poems involves vocabulary, a grasp of reading poetic language, and the use of metaphor, etc... Ultimately it is best discussed on a specific basis. Is there a specific poem you are struggling with?