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They See and Keep Silent: On Interpreting a Queen or a Poem that Looks Back at You
by Rachel Eisendrath

Rachel Eisendrath raises the possibility that Queen Elizabeth’s motto, ‘video et taceo’ (‘I see and keep silent’), describes not only the powerfully coiled comportment of the queen – but also the taut presence of aesthetic objects. Focusing on the first half of Edmund Spenser’s 1595 Amoretti, Eisendrath explores the narrator’s process of interpreting the silence of the woman at the center of these sonnets (Elizabeth Boyle, Spenser’s future wife) as akin to the reader’s process of interpreting the poems, or by extension of interpreting artworks in general. What is at stake in this essay is the role of imagination in interpretation, and the unstable dynamic between speech and silence. Read more…

Comments

  • that's not my neighbor 1 year ago

    There are many poems about the queen, but I think each poem has a different way of expressing it.

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    In my opinion, every poem that discusses the queen expresses it in a unique way.

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    The detailed and easy-to-understand explanation in this article really helped me grasp the issue comprehensively. It's a great read!

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  • worldguessr 4 days, 11 hours ago

    Thank you for this fascinating read! Rachel Eisendrath’s exploration of silence—as both a poetic and interpretive force—is deeply thought-provoking.

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Cite as:

Rachel Eisendrath, "They See and Keep Silent: On Interpreting a Queen or a Poem that Looks Back at You," Spenser Review (Spring-Summer 2018).
http://www.english.cam.ac.uk/spenseronline/review/volume-48/482/they-see-and-keep-silent-on-interpreting-a-queen-or-a-poem-that-looks-back-at-you
Accessed April 25th, 2025.
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