"Men Call You Fair" by Edmund Spenser
Spenser describes the praise a beautiful woman receives and exposes the futility in looking to fleeting, outer beauty. This is a common theme mimicked throughout poetry, prose, and biblical text. Spenser then juxtaposes what the speaker values with what the majority of others value in a woman. He relates that “gentle wit” and “virtuous mind” received much more of his admiration than dazzling physical attractiveness. Describing the plight of such ideas, Spenser expresses the surprise the men will come to find when the women “lose that glorious hue.” Spenser has an elevated, contemplative tone. This is seen as Spenser continues to ponder the true meaning of beauty with depth and honesty. There is a shift when Spenser transfers from focusing on the earthly view of beauty to the heavenly view of beauty.
Employing alliteration, he explains that only true splendor is “free from frail corruption.” Many of the ideas expressed in this poem mirror biblical morals. Spenser continues with the religious motif by illustrating that all things lovely are derived from “that fair Spirit, from whom all true and perfect beauty did at first proceed.” He goes on to explain that only through the Spirit can true beauty ever be found. Utilizing a simile, Spenser ends with a powerful line describing how all other beautiful people “like flowers untimely fade.” This sonnet contains romantic, wistful diction that paints the picture of the speaker’s conclusions about the nature of true loveliness. Spenser concludes that true beauty is not a striking face and a stunning figure, but instead it is something only bestowed upon the soul of others by God.
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