So it's time to write the first review. And I did pick a sonnet! Sonnet 79 by Edmund Spenser. And so you don't need to go look it up, here it is.
Men call you fair, and you do credit it,
For that yourself you daily such do see;
But the true fair, that is the gentle wit
And virtuous mind, is much more praised of me.
For all the rest, however fair it be,
Shall turn to naught and lose that glorious hue;
But only that is permanent and free
From frail corruption that doth flesh ensue,
That is true beauty; that doth argue you
To be divine and born of heavenly see;
Derived from that fair Spirit, from whom all true
And perfect beauty did at first proceed:
He only fair, and what he fair hath made;
All other fair, like flowers, untimely fade.
I personally love this sonnet, and I am not a huge fan of sonnets. I find them rather constricting and I find that fourteen lines is an awkward number. I much prefer ballads because of their musicality and the fact that they have no set length or number of stanzas, but they still have some structure. However, I actually like the Spenserian sonnets a lot, at least those which I have read. They really aren't that much different from a Shakespearean sonnet, other than the rhyme scheme, which is a little more difficult, as it is abab bcbc cdcd ee, as opposed to the more common, abab cdcd efef gg. This requires a little more effort to use certain rhymes twice as often as they traditionally were. Moreover I just like the message of the sonnet. The speaker is talking to a woman, and a woman who is considered quite beautiful. He admits that yes, she is beautiful, however the kind of beauty that he truly admires is the beauty of the mind, and the personality, because that doesn't fade, unlike physical beauty, which fades with age. It's not like no one has ever heard "It's what's inside that counts" time and time again, but the fact that it is done in such a beautiful and poetic way makes it less cliché. The poem itself just rolls of the tongue in a pleasant way and is enjoyable to read.
All things considered, what I like the most about this sonnet is that it doesn't hold up the physical beauty of the beloved as the most important thing, but that it speaks of the importance of the mind and personality. And I also like it because it is a beautiful poem.
