During Edmund Spencer's Amoretti, “Petrarch's beloved certainly underwent a transformation” (Lever 98 ) ; the speaker portrays the beloved as ruthless and not content to be an “unrequited lover” (Roche 1) as presented in a Petrarchan sonnet. Throughout Sonnet 37 and Sonnet 54, the speaker provides insight into the beloved that is not seen in Petrarch's sonnets; although the speaker presents his uncontrollable love for his beloved, he does so through his dissatisfaction with his position and his lack of control. In Sonnet 37, the speaker describes the beloved as an enchantress who cunningly captures the lover in her “golden trap” (Spencer, 6) and attempts to warn men of the beloved's nature. In Sonnet 54, the speaker is anguished by the beloved's ignorance of her pain and ends up denying her humanity. Spencer allows the speaker to display the conflicted nature of his relationship with the beloved through the speaker's negative description of the beloved, the presentation of the hope of escaping this love, and his dissatisfaction with his helplessness . Spencer presents a power struggle and reversed gender roles between the lover and the beloved, causing ultimate frustration for the speaker during his struggle for control. The woman is depicted as a siren as she consciously ensnares men through her beauty so stunning that men are unable to do so. resist once trapped by a single glance. In Sonnet 37, the beloved is representative of woman as a whole and is depicted as a siren in her conscious entrapment of innocent men through her beauty. The speaker begins his anger toward his beloved by saying, “What the hell is this guy? » (1), thus demonstrating his resentment and frustration towards, essentially, women and their pr...... middle of paper ...... ry description of the loved one, of his hope for freedom and of his struggle for power. The beloved, through the speaker's perception of her, is able to maintain the gender roles reversed and deprive the speaker of all power and control, causing him to resentfully accept defeat. Works Cited Spencer, Edmund. “Amoretti: Sonnet 37”. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. general. David Simpson. 8th ed. Flight. 1. New York: Norton, 2006. 904. Print. Spencer, Edmund. "Amoretti: Sonnet 54". The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. general. David Simpson. 8th ed. Flight. 1. New York: Norton, 2006. 904. Print.Roche, Thomas P. Jr. Petrarch and the English Sonnet Sequences. New York: AMS Press, 1989. Print.Lever, J. W. The Elizabethan Love Sonnet. London: Methuen & Co., 1956. Print. King James Version. Luke 11:35. Internet. November 21, 2013. https://www.bible.com/bible/1/luk.11.kjv