Amoretti XXXV: "My hungry eyes, through greedy covetize"

Spenser’s Sonnet XXXV, or Sonnet 35, has four sections: three quatrains (four-line sections) and a concluding couplet (two lines). Each section ends with a period and contains a complex thought structured around a central idea. Overall, the poem focuses on the imagery of the eyes. Eyes are given abilities beyond what they can realistically do (e.g., they hunger like the stomach), and they represent the speaker (a device called synecdoche). Eyes are used as a way to explore the speaker’s obsession with their beloved. The poem is considered autobiographical, so the speaker is generally read as Spenser.

The first quatrain qualifies the hunger of the speaker’s eyes as insatiable. No matter how much the eyes consume—or see—their beloved, it is never enough. Spenser uses the archaic word “covetise” (Line 1)— covetousness or the desire for ownership—to describe the eyes. Furthermore, this initial quatrain sets up the paradox of pain and pleasure. When the eyes look at their beloved, she is considered “the object of their pain” (Line 2). In other words, the beloved is so beautiful it hurts to look at her.