Sonnet 67

Like as a huntsman after weary chase,
  Seeing the game from him escaped away,
  sits down to rest him in some shady place,
  with panting hounds, beguiled of their prey:
So, after long pursuit and vain assay,
  when I all weary had the chase forsook,
  the gentle deer returned the self-same way,
  thinking to quench her thirst at the next brooke.
There she, beholding me with milder look,
  sought not to fly, but fearless still did bide,
  till I in hand her yet half trembling took,
  and with her own good will her firmly tied.
Strange thing, me seemed, to see a beast so wild,

  so goodly won, with her own will beguiled.

Spenserian sonnets are based on Edmund Spenser's courtship of Elizabeth Boyle. They are written in a very intricate form, with an interlocking rhyme scheme. In sonnet 67, the speaker portrays the pursuit of love as a chase, comparing his adventures to a hunt. This Spenserian sonnet describes the object of his affections as his prey, comparing himself to the effortless hunter who ultimately claims victory by putting forth no effort at all. The intricate rhyme scheme in this sonnet demonstrates how intertwined our actions and efforts are, with one person's circumstances and efforts affecting another's choices.  

In sonnet 67, the first quadrant describes the "weary chase", where the hunter would sit down "with panting hounds, beguiled of their prey". At this point in the sonnet the hunter's chase seems hopeless and full of meaningless effort since the prey continues to escape from him. The prey in the poem is the woman which Spenser is courting, at first showing no interest in his pursuit and escaping from him. The hunter is discouraged from his chase, sitting under the shade to rest after a long, weary journey.  The second quadrant then illustrates how the prey, a deer, returns to where he sits to "quench her thirst". This demonstrates how after the hunter has given up his pursuit and sits down to rest, the deer comes back to him to fulfill its own needs. This compares to a loving pursuit between humans. Spenser is portraying this scene to show that when a person ceases to effortfully pursue someone else, the object of their affections will come to them, realizing how much they themselves care for the pursuer.  The last quadrant depicts a scene where the deer is captured "half trembling" yet "fearless". This image demonstrates the victory that the speaker holds in his chase for the prey, who has walked up to him and given itself over to him. The prey comes to the hunter by its own free will, ironic since this is at a point where the hunter has given up his pursuit. The same victory is seen between Spenser and the woman he courted, Elizabeth Boyle, who later on in life became his wife. Spenser must have ultimately stopped "chasing" her for her to realize how much she cared for him. 

The last couplet in the sonnet reads "strange thing, me seemed, to see a beast so wild/ So goodly won, with her own will beguiled". This demostrates the speaker's victory in his pursuit of the "game from him escaped away" earlier in the poem. The chase was won when the hunter finally ceased his efforts, leading the prey to realize how much it "thirsted" for him. These interlocked situations, a reaction from one action leading to another, are emphasized with Spenser's intricate rhyme scheme. Also, the idea of wanting what one cannot attain is seen clearly throughout the poem, first with the hunter, and then with the prey once it realizes it is no longer being chased, returning to the hands of the hunter.