What is a critical analysis and summary of sonnet Amoretti 77 by Edmund Spencer?

According to href="http://faculty.goucher.edu/eng211/Spenser.html">Arnold Sanders, Goucher
College, Spenser’s Amoretti are mostly written in a concatenated rhyme scheme
of ababbcbccdcdee. The underlined rhymes are href="http://faculty.goucher.edu/eng211/a_glossary_of_terms.htm">concatenated,
linking stanzas across stanza boundaries. Spenser modified the sonnet, borrowed from
Petrarch, allowing the concatention to either link quatrains together logically or
oppose each other logically, turning upon the "axel" of the concatenated
rhyme.

In Amoretti 77, one of the concatenated rhymes may
be hard for modern ears to acknowledge due to a change in pronunciation of the title="On Early English Pronunciation: Illustrations of the pronunciation by A. J.
Ellis, F. J. Child, W.Salesbury"
href="http://books.google.com/books?id=TQxAAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=spenserian+pronunciation&source=bl&ots=auIK149anj&sig=X-YKVoh7MVe0ivcrcSfmikkgRRk&hl=en&ei=dvPBS7-iI8KB8gaq8aD9CA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CBYQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q&f=false">phonemes
in the rhyme; specifically, the rhyme between ivory, roialty, ly, and by. In Middle
English, which Spenser copied, the phoneme / y / at the end of a word was pronounced
like the English long / i / in contemporary wipe and as is Middle English my and fry.
Therefore ivory, roiatly, by and ly all end in the long / i /
sound.

Amoretti 77 follows the concatenated Spenserian
sonnet rhyme scheme ababbcbccdcd ee:
playne - a
yvory -
b
entertayne - a
roialty - b
ly - b
price -
c
by - b
entice - c
vice - c
taste -
d
Paradice - c
plaste - d
spredd - f
fedd -
f

This concatenation results in three couplets  instead of
the Shakespearean single couplet. The word concatenate is from the Latin catena meaning
chain, thus the rhymes are linked together in a chain. Spenserian sonnet rhyme scheme is
different from both Petrarchan (beginning abbaabba) and Shakespearean
(ababcdcdefefgg).

The form of Amoretti 77 is three
quatrains, with concatentated boundaries, and a final couplet. The ideas in quatrains 1
and 2 link logically at the concatenated rhyme. There is no opposition of quatrain logic
in 77. The linkage of logic is aided by enjambment at the concatenated rhymes; both
roialty and entice are followed by semicolons. In contrast, the third quatrain rhyme
ends with a full stop.

The first two quatrains set up the
dream vision ("Was it a dream...") and describe the apples. The third defines the apples
morally ("yet voyd of sinfull vice;...") and identifies their origin ("Paradice /
...Love himselfe..."), thereby underscoring the moral
definition.

In the final couplet, Spenser defines his own
metaphor. Elizabeth Boyle's bosom (the woman whom he later married) is the richly spread
table. Spenser's thoughts (Spenser is the acknowledged speaker) are the guests at the
feast--all the guests--who wish to feed upon Elizabeth's two "apples," the twin
highlights of her bosom.

A paraphrase may offer the best
summary:

Dream vision: Did I dream it or did I see
it?
A beautiful table of pure ivory
all spread with food, fit to
entertain
the greatest prince of stately royalty.
Among the foods, a
silver dish in which there lies
two golden apples of very costly
price
far better than the golden apples Hercules acquired from the
Hesperides
or the golden apples Aphrodite gave Melanion to help him win
against Atlanta, who, having seen them, picked each up in haste.
These apples
are exceedingly sweet but free of any vice.
Many want the apples but all are
denied the privilege of tasting.
The apples are sweet fruit of pleasure
brought from Paradise;
brought by Cupid, god of love, and planted in his own
garden.
Elizabeth’s bosom is the table toffering wonderful
delights.
Spenser’s thoughts are the guests at the banquet, and it is he who
wants to feed on the metaphoric feast and apples in the silver
plate.