Leah Shapiro Blog 3

Although Edmund Spenser’ capitalizes certain words to emphasize a literal meaning, his word choice also possesses a deeper connotation. For example, the speaker first mentions how Penelope “Deviz’d a Web her wooers to deceave”; in this case, the web not only illustrates the image of a spider’s netting in the reader’s mind, but also depicts a sticky entanglement in which “wooers” can get caught. This initial emphasis on this word also creates the primary controlling metaphor, comparing a web to the speaker’s main issue: his lover’s annihilation of his life’s work. Next, “Such subtile craft my Damzell doth conceave” places an emphasis on the word Damzell. This mention stresses the importance of the woman in the speaker’s life, but also, and more deeply, references to this woman as a “lady in distress.” Spenser’s capitalization highlights not only the significance of the person but also her persona. Finally, the last verse reads that “Such labour like the Spyders web I fynd.” Though at first the reader relates a spider’s labor to the hard work of the speaker, a deeper reading uncovers that this final capitalized word refers back to the prior words, Damzell and Web. Throughout the poem, not only does each word possess a literal and descriptive meaning, but can also be symbolically and analytically scrutinized.