Richard Barnfield's sonnets appended to "Cynthia" are basically in
Petrarchan form, using the scheme ABBA·ABBA CDECDE
Richard Barnfield wrote sonnets that focused upon homosexual love.
Other Elizabethan poets also wrote about homosexuality, but they
also wrote about heterosexual love. Richard Barnfield was different
in this respect.
Richard Barnfield Sonnet 17
Cherry-lipt Adonis in his snowie shape,
Might not compare with his pure ivorie white,
On whose faire front a poet’s pen may write,
Whose roseate red excels the crimson grape,
His love-enticing delicate soft limbs,
Are rarely fram’d t’intrap poore gazine eies:
His cheeks, the lillie and carnation dies,
With lovely tincture which Apollo’s dims.
His lips ripe strawberries in nectar wet,
His mouth a Hive, his tongue a hony-combe,
Where Muses (like bees) make their mansion.
His teeth pure pearle in blushing correll set.
Oh how can such a body sinne-procuring,
Be slow to love, and quicke to hate, enduring?
Commentary:
This sonnet is in the form of a blazon about an "Adonis".
Adonis is often interpreted as a satyre (effeminate gracefulness).
Thus the "sinful love between two men".
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