Mary Wroth: Sonnets Literary Elements

Pamphilia to Amphilanthus is a cycle of sonnets in which every poem is written from perspective of a young woman named Pamphilia to her love.

Petrarchan sonnet embedded with 14 crowns in which the last line of each poem serve as the first line of the next.

“Love a Child is Every Crying” is a sonnet which engages simile to illustrate the immaturity of being in love through a comparison to the demands of an unreasonable child. The title of the opening sonnet sets the stage for a metaphor that extends across the entire cycle. “When Night’s Black Mantle” initiates the recurring motif of darkness and night as a metaphor for the uncertainty the speaker feels about the future due to the her lover’s inconstancy which obscures the future.

Sonnet 68 overflows with alliterative repetition of words beginning with "S":
"My pain, still smothered in my grieved breast,
Seeks for some ease"
and
"Lost, shipwrecked, spoiled, debarred of smallest hope,
Nothing of pleasure left; save thoughts have scope"
are just two examples.

The poem concludes with a common example of assonance:
"And thus leave off: what's past shows you can love,
Now let your constancy your honour prove."

The greatest irony associated with Wroth's sonnet cycle is that they challenge the double standard allowing men to be promiscuous while demanding women remain chaste and monogamous; in fact, the married Wroth was engaged in a long-term affair with a married man while writing the sonnets.

Romantic sonnet cycle

Indeterminate

The tone is that of being held emotionally hostage by uncontrollable events.

Protagonist: Faithful Pamphilia. Antagonist: Inconstant Amphilanthus

The primary conflict here is that between Pamphilia's desire for her love to be faithful and his desire not to be.

The climax is actually anticlimactic as Pamphilia suddenly decides to stop:
"My Muse, now happy, lay thyself to rest,
Sleep in the quiet of a faithful love,
Write you no more, but let these fancies move
Some other hearts; wake not to new unrest,"

The opening assertion of sonnet indicates that things may not possibly turn out well:
"My heart is lost, what can I now expect?"

The cycle avoids didactic commentary upon sexism and so become an exercise in rhetorical understatement as it critiques the status quo of sexual inequality between the genders.

The entire sonnet cycle may be viewed as allusion to the affair Wroth was having with her lover in real life. Pamphilia also alludes to mythology by accusing Cupid of having martyred her heart.

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Sonnet 68 contains the lines :
"My pain, still smothered in my grieved breast,
Seeks for some ease, yet cannot passage find
To be discharged of this unwelcome guest"
which personifies pain into the annoying houseguest who doesn't know when it's time to leave and who it is not an easy task to forcibly remove.

The sonnet titled "Sweetest Love, Return Again" offers an example of hyperbole in the speakers admonition to her lover"
"But since you must needs depart,
And me hapless leave,
In your journey take my heart
Which will not deceive
Yours it is, to you it flies
Joying in those loved eyes"

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