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THE FAERIE QUEENE ALLITERATION Ixv
and this use is especially noticeable in the Alexandrine, where the assonance
will often be found to emphasize the caesura
A worke of wondrous grace, and able soules to saue (i ix 19)
That like a rose her silken leaues did faire vnfoid (vi xu 7 )
At times he carries his assonance through a whole stanza, as in the following,
where he emphasizes the rhyme vowels at and e by contrasting them
with the harder sound of 1
So there that night Sir Calidore did dwell,
And long while after, whilest him list remaine,
Dayly beholding the faire Pastorell,
And feeding on the bayt of his owne bane
During which time he did her entertaine
With all kind courtesies, he could muent,
And euery day, her compame to game,
When to the field she went, he with her went
So for to quench his fire, he did it more augment (vi ix 34 ) l
But Spenser's most persistent artistic device is alliteration, which he
uses alike to mark his rhythm and knit his verse together, to enforce his
meaning, and for its pure melodic beauty He was attracted to it,doubtIess,
By his study of that earlier poetry which is alliterative by structure, but
his knowledge of Chaucer had showed him its greater artistic value when
it is accidental rather than structural, and he developed its musical possibilities
to their utmost, so that it became for him an integral part of his
melody, capable of sustaining his verse even when his poetic inspiration
was at its lowest Many of his favourite phrases 'girlonds
gay', 'silver sleepe', lovelylayes', 'wide wildernesse', are born of his love
of alliteration, and so natural an element of his music does it become
that at times it influences, almost unconsciously, his choice of words
I knockt, but no man aunswred me by name,
I cald, but no man answerd to my clame (iv x II )
Its use for emphasis is obvious enough, as in the description of the giant
who ' with sturdie steps came stalking in his sight' (I vII 8), or of the
studied hypocrisy of Archimago
Sober he seemde, and very sagely sad, (1 1 29)
or of the gloom of the Cave of Despair
Darke, dolefull, dreane, like a greedie graue (I ix 33)
Like Milton, he knew the power of alliteration upon to give the
sense of vastness and desolation
In all his wayes through this wide worldes waue (I x 34 ) 2
1 Cf also vil vn 44, where Spenser enforces the contrast between Day and Night
by emphasizing throughout the stanza the vowels a and i
2 Cf, also II. vII. 2,1, ix. 39.