Sonnet 4 by Edmund Spenser
Be not dismayed that her unmoved mind
Doth still persist in her rebellious pride:
And love not like to lusts of baser kind,
The harder won, the firmer will abide.
The durefull Oak, whose sap is not yet dried,
Is long ere it conceive the kindling fire;
But when it once doth burn, it doth divide,
Great heat, and makes his flames to heaven aspire.
So hard it is to kindle new desire,
In gentle breast that shall endure for ever:
Deep is the wound, that dints the parts entire
With chaste affects, that naught but death can sever.
Then think not long in taking little pain,
To knit the knot, that ever shall remain.
The sonnet is written in the
form. The rhyme scheme is
y. The main idea of the poem is
The poet has used the
of burning an oak to emphasize how patient one needs to be when trying to win the love of a
lady. He also uses the metaphor of the y to emphasize the depth of love.