Close Reading-Spenser-Sonnet 37

Edmund Spenser's Sonnet 37 is written in iambic pentameter. It is describing a hunt which is the conceit of the sonnet, commonly seen in love sonnets. The metaphor in this sonnet is that the woman is the hunter. In line 3 of the sonnet Spenser makes the meter irregular, suggesting the woman is doing something sneaky. In the line 9 of this sonnet, Spenser spells "do" as "doe". He is personifying the word "do" into "doe", a female deer. He is suggesting that a man should not become a deer trapped in the "net" of a woman. We find the turn of the sonnet between lines 8 & 9, and the resolution in lines 9-14. In the sonnet, the woman is wearing a golden hair net and her hair is golden. This is suggesting that the hair is the bait, but one will always get caught in the net. Spenser writes about a woman catching a man with a golden snare in line 8. This is representative of a wedding ring. The sonnet has a feminine ending, having one extra, unaccented syllable. Spenser is implying that women are weak and add extra ornaments to beautify themselves, and only to trap men along the way.