Bring out the distinctive features of Spenser’s poetic art with reference to his description of the Bower of Bliss.

Bring out the distinctive features of Spenser’s poetic art with reference to his description of the Bower of Bliss.

Home of the bewitching and alluring witch Acrasia, the Bower of Bliss is one of the most memorable and strange places in the whole of The Faerie Queene. Coming at the end of Book 2, The Book of Temperance, the Bower of Bliss represents the ultimate challenge to our hero of temperance, Guyon, by embodying everything temperance is not. What happens in the Bower of Bliss stays in the Bower of Bliss.

The Bower of Bliss shares some commonalities with the Garden of Eden, and is framed as potentially dangerous. The Bower of Bliss, as described in Book II, canto XII, is guarded by a gate: “No Gate, but like one, being goodly dight/ With boughs and Branches, which did broad dilate/ Their clasping Arms, in wanton Wreathings intricate”. This gate, though beautiful, guards the bower and conveys a sense of privacy. Once inside, Guyon and Palmer meet a woman; “Under that Porch a comely Dame did rest/ Clad in fair Weeds, but foul disordered/ And Garments loose, that seem’d unmeet for Womanhed”. This depiction, in context of Pierce’s model of signs as embodied feeling, gives the passage an ominous overtone. The woman’s beauty, interpreted at face value, is appealing, but in combination with her unseemly garments, seems a sort of trap. Indeed, she does attempt to ensnare the travelers with her cup of wine, made from the fruit of the Bower. She squeezes the fruit into the cup, and “That so fair Wine-Press made the Wine more sweet/ Thereof she us’d to give drink to each/ Whom passing by she happened to meet;/ It was her guise, all Strangers goodly so to greet”. The woman, with her tempting cup of wine, brings to mind the Serpent in the garden of Eden, as the bower in which she is situated is very beautiful, “the most dainty Paradise on ground,” and what is natural beauty without an element of danger or temptation? Indeed, the woman is identified as Excess, who poses a threat to all she encounters. One might interpret her on a symbolic level as representing man’s draw to exploit natural beauty to excess.

The Bower is full or erotic, gustatory (taste-related), and visual temptations that invite excess rather than moderation, consumption rather than abstinence. In its seeming natural beauty—but just seeming, never real—the bower evokes ideas of the Earthly paradise of Eden, however this too is part of its temptation, since it's a false and perverse version of Eden. Just like Vegas is a false and perverse version of Venice, Paris, New York, and Luxor.

However, what makes the Bower of Bliss such a fascinating moment poetically is the beauty of Spenser's writing here and its ability to lure the reader into its delights along with Guyon. Critics have often wondered why Spenser so beautifully described a place that we are meant to understand as false, and there's no easy answer.............................................................................................................

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Milan Tomic

Hi. I’m Designer of Blog Magic. I’m CEO/Founder of ThemeXpose. I’m Creative Art Director, Web Designer, UI/UX Designer, Interaction Designer, Industrial Designer, Web Developer, Business Enthusiast, StartUp Enthusiast, Speaker, Writer and Photographer. Inspired to make things looks better.

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