The Drama of Amoretti

Abstract

This reading of Amoretti is an attempt to synthesize the insights of traditionalists and numerologists by focusing on the psychology of the lover as poet-narrator. I suggest that we may profitably read Amoretti as a dramatization of the process of learning to love. The lover-poet in Amoretti progresses from a state of normal human ignorance to a state of relative wisdom concerning love. Because the lover, through his human limitations, is imperfect in his understanding of love, we cannot take his assertions at face value; hence, much of his ranting and complaining shows mainly the inadequacy of his understanding. The lover’s education proceeds in three stages, relating to the religious framework of the sequence. The first is the long period of trial and preparation, which corresponds to Lent. The second state is that of revelation through Christ’s example of perfect love. The third stage is that of the temporary physical separation of the lovers corresponding to the physical separation of man from God. Recognition of the limitations of the poet-lover enables us to see the important element of irony in Amoretti. The irony of the drama results from his inability to relate his personal experience to the larger context of religious values embodied in the symbolic framework that the reader can see, but that the lover cannot. The article includes also new insights into several of the problematical details of the sequence, such as the superscription over sonnet 58, the placement of 62, and the repetition of 35.