Edmund Spenser’s Complicated Sonnet Causes a Simple Composition
‘Songs are not neglected. There are two; one, “When stars are in the quiet skies” (written August 13, 1865, and another, “Fair is my love,” (“written for Primrose, Eton, ’64-5 copied ad fin., July 3, ’65”.)’ ~ Emily Daymond
While “Fair is my love” is just a budding boy’s
Attempt to write a song, it works but more
As just an exercise, some fun that toys
With simpler tasks not really cut out for
A challenge. Melodies combined in twos
And threes were more fulfilling. Subjects in
A fugue he grew together, vines to fuse
As on a trellis, these were much less thin.
A primrose is a sweet thing, but not sweet
As clematis and climbing rose combined
As they rise up on sturdy frames. They meet
And part and flow, are not so much confined
As one small tune set down on music’s bars.
He knew that music grows its blooms towards stars.