Blog 3 - Carly Turner

Spenser’s pervading web imagery in his Sonnet XXIII reveals that, despite the strength and complex nature of love, it can be quickly and easily shattered by just one person. Spenser employs two primary analogies: he begins by comparing his love to Penelope’s deceitful plot to weave and unweave her shroud in The Odyssey, and he ends with a comparison of his love to a spider’s web. The two are quite different: Penelope’s plot, however deceitful, revealed the undying strength of her love for Odysseus, as she resisted the suitors and remained faithful to her husband who had been missing for twenty years. When Spenser describes the spider’s work, on the other hand, he uses words such as “fruitless” and describes a web that “is broken with least wynd.” The comparison of his efforts at love to a spider’s fruitless labor reveals the fragile nature of love, which is an interesting juxtaposition with Penelope’s story of her love’s strength. This apparent contrast displays the complicated nature of love, reinforced by Spenser’s continued comparison of love to a woven web, which is complicated by nature. There are no commas or periods in the middle of any line, which creates a cadence that reinforces the fluid, weaving imagery. The fact that Spenser chooses to end his sonnet with the comparison to a spider’s web cements the assertion that, regardless of love’s strength, at the end of the day it can be effortlessly “broken with the least wynd.” As Spenser’s experiences have shown, love is vulnerable to a partner’s caprice.