The structure of Spenser’s poem is a metaphor for the poem’s meaning and is essential to the communication of this meaning. The rhyme scheme of the first nine lines is A, B, A, B, B, C, B, C, C. These nine lines only form a pattern when the reader, after reading five lines, rewinds back a line and repeats it before continuing on. When doing so, the rhyme scheme becomes an alphabetically escalating pattern of “first letter, second letter, first letter, second letter, second letter” such that the first five lines read, “A, B, A, B, B” and the second read “B, C, B, C, C.” Spenser forces the reader to, in order to find a pattern, routinely rewind and reread a line in order to establish a correlation between the poem’s rhyme scheme and subject, which is an unmarried woman that either slows or stops a suitor’s pursuit by undoing some of his progress. In the metaphor, the text of the poem represents the suitor’s pursuit (into which Spenser packs extra letters, indicating the speaker’s “desire” to pursue her to the fullest degree, and only puts pause-creating punctuation at the end of the lines, indicating the necessity for the speaker to “never bring [this pursuit] to end”), and the rhyme scheme represents the parameter that hinders this pursuit: the unmarried woman’s requirements. Spenser directly establishes the poem’s rhyme scheme as such by stating the pursuit-destroying capacity of one incorrect word: “And with one word my whole years work doth rend.” Not only does this establish the metaphor, but also, given the definitiveness of the “doth,” it also foreshadows a break in rhyme scheme.
After establishing the rhyme scheme in the first nine lines, Spenser continues on with C, D, C, D (just D, C, D without the necessary repetition of the previous C), but instead of accurately completing the rhyme scheme with another D, he uses the letter “y” instead of the necessary letter “e” in the word fynd, thereby making the rhyme scheme “C, D, C, D, E,” and, as previously foreshadowed, rending his pursuit with one incorrect word. The poem ends on the line immediately following this incorrect word, linking its end to the error in the rhyme scheme. Remembering that the text itself represents the pursuit of an unmarried woman, ending the poem immediately after a break in rhyme scheme shows how easily pursuit can be hindered.
Not only does the poem (and thereby the speaker’s pursuit) end, but also the speaker knows of this fate while he is in the process of pursuit. Before breaking the rhyme scheme, the speaker announces this fatal fate in the previously cited line, “And with one word my whole years work doth rend” and in multiple other lines that describe the damsel’s unfailing prowess at unraveling the web that the speaker spins in her pursuit.
The irony of the poem is that the speaker pursues the damsel although he is aware of the futility of this pursuit. After he has broken the rhyme scheme in the 13th line and acknowledged what a break in rhyme scheme causes, he continues to write another line of pursuit. He savors the futile process of pursuit, evidenced by the unnecessary effort he puts into beefing up not only many of the words in the poem, but also, ironically, the word in the last line, “fruitlesse.” In addition to extra letters, the existence of the entire poem shows how he savors the futile pursuit. Given that the text of the poem represents pursuit, the fact that the speaker took the time to write it even when it must end—for, in addition to his stated knowledge of the fatal fate of the poem, all poems must ultimately end—shows that pursuing in and of itself is worthwhile to him.
Spenser argues that men pursue even when they know that the goal is unattainable, not because they hope to reach that goal, but because pursuit in and of itself is desirable.
Your analysis of the rhyme scheme is interesting and very important - the parallels between the nature of the rhyme and the meaning of the poem reinforce the poet's message. The rhyme also mimics the weaving, winding, and unwinding imagery, further reinforcing the poem's assertions of love's weblike nature, and the pitfalls of it being as such.
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