I know this is probably not a good place to post this...

I realize that these forums are primarily for coding, etc. but I realized that the community here is very active and willing to help with almost anything it seems.

I'm having great trouble analyzing this poem that's written by Edmund Spencer:

Note: New sections of the poem start every two line breaks..

My hungry eyes through greedy covetize,
Still to behold the object of their pain,
With no contentment can themselves suffice:
But having pine and having not complain.

For lacking it they cannot life sustain,
And having it they gaze on it the more:
In their amazement like Narcissus vain
Whose eyes him starved: so plenty makes me poor.

Yet are mine eyes so filled with the store
Of that fair sight, that nothing else they brook,
But loathe the things which they did like before,
And can no more endure on them to look.

All this world's glory seemeth vain to me,
And all their shows but shadows, saving she.

---

OK, this is what I got out of it (sort of a paraphrase):

A man yearns for a woman that is unreachable. Looking at her brings him pain because he cannot have her, yet he does not complain. He feels that he cannot live without her, yet if he had her he would only want more. He is so vain about it that he can't ever be sastified. He is so captivated by her that he sees nothing else. Even the things he enjoyed before, he is no longer interested in. All the things that the world beholds he no longer desires as if they are hidden behind her.

OK, what I need help with is this:

Analyzing the poem section by section (defining what he means by certain words and phrases, etc.). For example what does 'For lacking it they cannot life sustain' exactly mean or what does he mean by 'pine', etc...

I don't expect anyone to do all of this for me, but if anyone helps a bit it would be greatly appreciated as I'm not the greatest at analyzing poems section by section.

Perhaps someone could redirect to me a forum where I could get help quickly or semi-quickly would be greatly appreciated as well.

Good lord am I rusty on this technique... but the first thing I thought when I started reading this was "It's gotta (sorry rycamor...) be about a woman!"
I take this to mean that he cannot live without seeing her - though, not in the literal sense that he would die if he didn't see her, just that he feels an urgent need as part of his existence to gaze upon her.

"pining" for something is feeling a desperate need to be with that something or someone. Usually it's used in reference to wanting to be with someone you can't be, especially a departed loved one. In the poem, he's referencing his urgent need to be with her or a part of her life, and at the same time mentioning that he's not showing it outwardly: "...and having not complain".

My 0.02 at that.

Well, a good dictionary is always useful (I think the 2nd and 5th are most applicable).

Also, google is your friend.

Also, you may want to substitute or add nouns. Like replace "it" with the actual object, and add some more detail ("so plenty of it makes me poor").

Good luck .

Sort of a paraphrase or sort of a verbatim?

http://www.lockhart.k12.tx.us/lhs/p... Edmund Spenser

Or your enemy, depending on which way that double-edged sword is swinging.

I like "Sonnet 130" by Shakespeare but I think the interpretation is a little off.

LoL! Rich in irony indeed.



What is lacking what? The subject of this whole section are the poet's eyes. The eyes, from the first verse, cannot sustain life if they lack the vision that is "the object of their pain". (the woman, we assume). Essentially, the poet is saying this womans beauty brings both joy and pain. He is setting his eyes as adversaries to his own well-being. Her beauty is a double-edged sword.


This one is a little harder to parse, but I believe it goes something like this:

Narcissus' eyes "him starved". Meaning the vanity of his eyes starved his own person. Thus to the poet, seeing the beauty that his eyes seek brings harm to the rest of his person.

This is kind of a view of "courtly love" which came to the European mind during the medieval times, but was still very much alive in Rennaissance times also.

By the way that is the key to Shakespeare's Sonnet 130. He is mocking courtly love, in which the minstrel pines for the unattainable woman. So his poem is kind of a wink at that culture, while also demolishing it. Go Will!!

Ugh... that website has the most perfectly awful interpretations of poems I have ever seen.

I agree completely. Will was poking fun at the traditional italian sonnet, which was very common during that time period. He basically was saying that he could express his love for the woman without having to exaggerate or lie about her features.

Yes, I obviously did copy that paraphrase.

I read this poem over and over and came up with this explanation (credits to you guys, you're awesome, thanks a lot):

This whole poem is about how a man realizes that he cannot get the woman he wants, yet he cannot help but hunger after her. In every section of the poem except for the last two lines, the subject is Edmund Spencer's eyes. The subject is not necessarily his actual eyes, but his persona. Spencer uses a lot of personification in this poem because he treats his eyes as though they contained his feelings for this woman. The first four lines of this poem introduces his feelings for the woman. He explains how he cannot get over the fact that the woman is unreachable. He's explaining that this woman's beauty brings him both joy and pain at the same time. In essence, he compares the woman's beauty as a double-edged sword. In the first line, "My hungry eyes through greedy covetize", the word 'covetize' means to crave for pocession. The personification used in this line is that Spencer's eyes crave to not only see this woman, but to be in her presence. In the second line, "Still to behold the object of her pain", the phrase 'object of her pain' is a reference to the woman. In this line, he's saying that even though there's no way that he'll be able to reach this woman, he can't get her off of his mind. The
personification used in this line is that his eyes are heavily focused on the woman. In the third line, "With no contentment
can themselves suffice", the word 'suffice' means to satisfy the needs or requirements of or be enough for. Spencer believes
that his happiness that the woman brings him cannot be compared. This is an example of both metaphor and hyperbole. This is a metaphor because he describes his happiness as infinite happiness. This is also a hyperbole because any measure of happiness can be compared to something else. There is no such thing as infinite happiness. In the fourth line, "But having pine and not having complain", the phrase 'having pine' means that he's referencing his urgent need to be with her or a part of her life. But when he says "not having complain", he mentions that he's not showing this need outwardly. In the next four lines of the poem, Spencer emphasizes his feelings for the woman. He explains that he can't survive without her and that the more he
lives, the more he thinks about her. He goes as far as making a comparison with Narcissus from Greek mythology. He's saying
that the vanity of his eyes starved his own person. Therefore, to him, seeing the beauty that his eyes seek beings harm to
the rest of his person. In the fifth line of this poem, 'it' refers to the woman again. The word 'sustain' simply means to keep in existence. This line is an example of another hyperbole because he warns that his life will actually end if he lacks what he wants, which cannot be true. In the seventh line, simile is used as well as allusion and apostrophe. Then line eight uses metaphor again. In the next four lines, he convinces the audience that he is not interested in anything else but the woman. He can no longer do anything he used to be interested in because he is too focused on the woman. In the ninth line, 'store' refers to his love for the woman. The word 'brook' in line ten means to tolerate. This whole section is a large metaphor in that he is so deeply in love that it's impossible for him to think about anything else.

I just wanted to warn you that while Google makes it easy to find information, it also makes it easy for a teacher / professor to find out who's been using the cut-and-paste keys a little too heavy. Its better to be busted by us than in front of a classroom. I also posted it because it was funny!

After that grim poem we all needed a laugh...

Don't laugh too long...

I was in an English major for awhile. If a prof finds you plagiarizing someone's work the consqequences can be severe. I've seen them range from a 0 on the assignment, to a 0 in the class, to expulsion from school. Warning! Most English teachers are not very forgiving on the subject (and shouldn't be).

You guys are the best. I got a 95 on this assignment. I might just get an A in English this quarter for once. Dang strict teachers...

//LOL

Are you one of those people that says "irregardless"?

Cool grade though, man. Good luck!

No, I'm serious. She is one of the most harsh graders I have ever experienced. One time for homework all we had to do was sign some form. She said that she would not give anything higher than a 95 (what the heck is that?). Come to think of it, I've rarely gotten any higher than 95 on any assignment. Right now I have a 90 average and hoping to boost it up to an A (93). A lot of people in my class are miserably failing.