Elizabethan
Literature

Edmund Spenser’s famous collection of sonnets, Amoretti, is a series of love sonnets dedicated to Elizabeth Boyle, the lady of his dreams whom he pursues and eventually marries in 1594. The term “amoretti” is literally defined as “little loves” or “little cupids.” Spenser closely follows many conventions of the Elizabethan sonnets, but in some ways his sonnets deviate from the norm for this era. For instance, many Elizabethan sonnets call on the idea of the Muses, the mythological Greek goddesses that provided inspiration for literature, science, and the arts. Spenser frequently references the Muses in his sonnets.

Spenser set out to create a body of work that could parallel the great works of European poets such as Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio and extend the line of English literary culture begun by Chaucer.