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My love is like to ice, and I to fire:
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?
Or how comes it that my exceeding heat
Is not allayed by her heart-frozen cold,
But that I burn much more in boiling sweat,
And feel my flames augmented manifold?
What more miraculous thing may be told,
That fire, which all things melts, should harden ice,
And ice, which is congeal's with senseless cold,
Should kindle fire by wonderful device?
Such is the power of love in gentle mind,
That it can alter all the course of kind.
Edmund Spenser
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Read poems about / on: fire, power, heart, love
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Comments about this poem (My Love Is Like To Ice
by
Edmund Spenser
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Edmund Spenser
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Michael Pruchnicki
(9/30/2009 6:35:00 PM) |
The speaker in Spenser's sonnet 'My Love Is Like to Ice' is the mask the poet adopts, using an ancient rhetorical device. The poet and the speaker (or persona, which literally means 'mask') are not necessarily one and the same. You can consider it the perceiving consciousness, if you prefer; the main thing is to avoid the confusion and misunderstanding that accompanies the error. Please remember that a poet like Spenser was always in complete control of his subject. He was not given to flights of fancy in any way whatsoever!
The poem is a sonnet grouped into three quatrains and a couplet. The rhyme scheme of the first quatrain is ABAB / fire, great, desire, entreat; the second is BCBC / heat, cold, sweat, manifold; the third rhymes CDCD / told, ice, cold, device; and the couplet rhymes EE / mind, kind. The rhyme includes near rhyme in great/entreat and heat/sweat. Keep in mind that in Spenser's day, poetry was considered a rhetorical game more often than not.
The first line is a simile that compares his love/beloved one to ice and the speaker to a fire that for some reason does not thaw his frozen love. The more he pursues her, the faster she flees (the colder she gets!) . There is a 'law of contraries' being created here that defies natural law - those laws like gravity that operate on one and all in normal circumstances. But these are NOT normal times, the speaker alleges. This is a time for miracles in the realm of romance. We are in a foreign place where the usual laws do not apply. The couplet resolves the dilemma by sleight of language - the power of love can overrule natural love and change our very nature. Our 'kind' (mankind) can be changed to its very core.
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Ravi A
(9/30/2009 11:57:00 AM) |
The landing space is perfect. That tells the essence of the poem.
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Akachukwu Chukwuemeka
(9/30/2009 9:56:00 AM) |
the hotter he burn with love, the harder the stubborn ice of her emotion (she plays hard to get) . sometimes we fall in love with those that have no fellings for us thus, we burn with pain to no avail...sometimes it becomes important to allow nature to melt this ice so hard for our human fire to dissolve; you allow this ice to melt naturally and flow into the burnt out ashes of your emotions...
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Albert Ahearn
(9/30/2009 6:01:00 AM) |
“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.
He doesn't fully realize his situation and the nature of his love towards this medium that has negative effects to his actions. Time is a special part of the process, similar to love. According to this quote, fire melts the ice and by 'wonderful device' the ice fuels the flame, a mutual process. He questions himself in affect to love by giving him the element of fire, and love ice. The poet states that the ice kindled the fire, in other words ignited the flame, changing it to the metaphorical perspective, two people 'ice' and 'fire, ' both possessing unique attributes. He uses a metaphor to display his negative response towards love. 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. 'But harder grows the more I her entreat? ' this further supports the mood of hopelessness. It seems, as the poet does not quite understand that yet during this time in the poem. 'And I feel my flames augmented manifold? ' The poet still feels a bit of confusion, which he still shows by asking questions at the end of each section, his thoughts towards love and the one he adores causes uncertainty, however he feels change in himself the 'flame. 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. He went so far as to break the law of nature by hardening ice by fire. He, as the fire who has a burning desire cannot melt this love that is so sturdy, reassuring that tone of futility. He personifies his love different from himself in affect to give it its own personality so that he may relate it to himself and others easier.”
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Kevin Straw
(9/30/2009 5:49:00 AM) |
Robert Frost's (appropriate name!) 'Some say the world will end in fire;
Some say in ice...' Seems to be contradicted by Spenser's assertion that love and hate are miraculously eternal.
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Kevin Straw
(9/30/2009 5:47:00 AM) |
Robert Frost's (appropriate name!) 'Some say the world will end in fire;
Some say in ice...' Seems to be contradicted by Spenser's assertion that love and hate are mysteriously eternal.
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Ramesh T A
(9/30/2009 3:22:00 AM) |
True, love has the power to alter the course of anything in the world!
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Amarilis Garcia
(6/25/2008 11:58:00 PM) |
I love this sonnet so much! Its among my favorites......!
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Elinor Auerbach
(9/30/2007 1:43:00 PM) |
I really enjoyed the way the words seemed to weave in and amongst themselves was fabulously thought provoking! beautiful!
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