by Edmund Spencer
Like as a huntsman after weary chase,
Seeing the game from him escap'd away,
Sits down to rest him in some shady place,
With panting hounds beguiled of their prey:
So after long pursuit and vain assay,
When I all weary had the chase forsook,
The gentle deer return'd the self-same way,
Thinking to quench her thirst at the next brook.
There she beholding me with milder look,
Sought not to fly, but fearless still did bide:
Till I in hand her yet half trembling took,
And with her own goodwill her firmly tied.
Strange thing, me seem'd, to see a beast so wild,
So goodly won, with her own will beguil'd.
Edmund Spencer's "Amoretti LXVII: Like as a Huntsman" is a Shakespearean-like sonnet (containing 3 quatrains and an ending couplet), but with a distinct variation on traditional rhyme scheme. Instead of the "abab, cdcd, efef" rhyme scheme, Spenser implements a system where the final line of each quatrain rhymes with the first line of the next quatrain, effectively making the pattern a "abab, bcbc, cdcd" format. The volta occurs in line 7, when the narrator realizes that after all of his tiring hunting, a deer has in fact decided to calmly move towards him: "The gentle deer return'd the self-same way." This sonnet initially drew me in because I love the classic "hunter-hunted" dynamic in literature and poetry, but I was pleasantly surprised by the twist. I believe this sonnet has ties to the common sonnet subjects of love, in the way that the hunter and deer have a moment of brief moment of union and harmony, despite their inherently antagonistic relationship. Nature itself was tamed for just a fleeting, beautiful moment, and I believe this poem masterfully depicted the moment. It recalls tales of unrequited love, but in this instance, the affection is actually returned.
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