Summary Of For That He Looked Not Upon Her By George Gascoigne

“For That He Looked Not Upon Her”, written by the sixteenth century English poet George Gascoigne, displays a complex attitude of sorrow and almost depression, which is developed through the form, diction, and imagery of the poem. This poem is written in the form of an English sonnet. It follows the “ABAB” rhyme scheme, uses iambic pentameter, and concludes with a rhyming couplet. The speaker explains that he “takes no delight” (Line 3) in looking at his lover anymore; the standard form used helps to support the speaker’s argument. The speaker also conveys his sorrow through his farfetched diction and his use of alliteration. He begins by mentioning his “louring head so low” (2), which displays alliteration and also the pain that he feels.

The first image is of a mouse that learns from his earlier mistake of being trapped in a mouse trap and becomes paranoid that any food he tries to eat will merely be a trap; therefore, he chooses to hide instead. The speaker compares himself to this situation in order to convey that for the rest of his life he will be living in fear of his past experience and will avoid loving and trusting others. Also, the speaker mentions “the gleams which on your face do grow” (4), which causes the reader to develop another image of a lively woman with vibrant colors and a smile on her face next to the gloomy, lifeless man. The speaker describes his pain through that way that his lover’s “blazing eyes my bale have bred” (14), implying that his pain feeds off of his lover’s happiness and fills him with a sense of betrayal and deceit. The next image is of a “scorched fly” (9) which was physically burned and wounded. The speaker has also been wounded and cannot recover due to the amount of pain and sorrow that has been imploded upon him. The speaker’s point that “grievous is the game/ Which follows fancy dazzled by desire” (11-12) shows that he has learned from his past mistakes and is no longer naive to what is going