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Lawrence Wong

Mrs. Mann

AP English Literature and CompositionBlock 2

28 November 2017

For That He Looked Not upon Her

Love is a frequent theme in poetry. Through love, one can find ultimate happiness while

it can also result in destruction. One such example where love fails is George Gascoignes For

That He Looked Not upon Her. Through the use of compelling diction imagery and diction and

a restrictive fixed form, Gascoigne shows that the speaker lusts for love yet does not approach it

as he is afraid due to his past experiences.

The form this poem is written in hints at the speakers seclusion. First, the poem follows

all the rules of an English Sonnet (10 syllables a line, iambic pentameter, correct rhyme scheme).

Thus, this suggests that the speaker is afraid of straying from the path into a place more beautiful

and free. Secondly, the speaker frequently uses alliteration to finish off stanzas. At the end of the

second stanza, he writes, grievous is the game and follows fancy dazzled by desire, and in

the last stanza he finishes Because your blazing eyes my bale have bred. Even after restricting

himself to all the rules of a Shakespearean Sonnet, the speaker believes he must put even an

additional restrictionalliteration. He wants to hide himself as far from his love as possible.

However, alliteration also is beautiful in of itself. Therefore, although he states he does not want

to see her beauty, he still has the desire for it.

The alliteration appears at the end of the second and third quatrain which are both

metaphors for the speakers experiences. In the second quatrain The mouse which once hath

broken out of trap/Is seldom ticd with the trustless bait. The speaker compares himself to a
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mouse who was won over by food and was then betrayed. In the third quatrain, the speaker

likens himself to a fly nearly caught in flames. Both instances are near death experiences while

not even receiving any compensationno food, no fire, and thus, no love. In fact, this is proven

in line 12 where he states follows fancy dazzled by desire. He was baited by her beauty and

only hurt in the end.

The speaker is not simply afraid of love, he fears it due to his narrow escape before.

Nevertheless, he is still taken aback by her beauty and lusts for love.