Poem of the week – Edmund Spenser’s Sonnet 68

Edmund Spenser is most famous for his extremely long and arduous allegorical poem, The Faerie Queen. Philip Larkin, who was obliged to study that monumental tome of Elizabethan literature while at Oxford, famously commented, “First I thought that Troilus and Criseyde was the most boring poem in English. Then I thought Beowulf was. Then I thought Paradise Lost was. Now I know that The Faerie Queene is the dullest thing out.” As you might guess, it is not a work read widely by casual lovers of verse. But Spenser’s other great contribution to the art of English poetry, his romantic and religious sonnet cycle, Amoretti, has been regretfully overshadowed by the fame of The Faerie Queen.

This week’s poem is a sonnet from that neglected collection. Sonnet 68, often referred to as the ‘Easter Sonnet’, resonants like a sort of hymn, being at once addressed to God and to a lover. In it, Spenser gives thanks to the almighty on this hallowed day before imploring the reader to learn the divine ‘lesson’ of love that God has ‘taught’ us. We hope you enjoy this week’s poem as much as we did and that you have a very happy Easter. 

Sonnet 68

Most glorious Lord of Lyfe! that, on this day,

Didst make Thy triumph over death and sin;

And, having harrowd hell, didst bring away

Captivity thence captive, us to win:

This joyous day, deare Lord, with joy begin;

And grant that we, for whom thou diddest dye,

Being with Thy deare blood clene washt from sin,

May live for ever in felicity!

And that Thy love we weighing worthily,

May likewise love Thee for the same againe;

And for Thy sake, that all lyke deare didst buy,

With love may one another entertayne!

So let us love, deare Love, lyke as we ought,

—Love is the lesson which the Lord us taught.