Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser decided at a young age to become the greatest English poet of his time. Accordingly, he began his poetic career with a pastoral project in the style of Virgil's Aeclogues. Spenser's Shepheardes Calender imitates an almanac used by working-class Englishmen (Compost et Kalendrier des Berbers), but the book also uses glosses to explicate the text. In contrast with its humble appearance, the Shepheardes Calender demonstrates Spenser's education and poetic creativity.
As Spenser's career developed, he undertook an epic poem with the stated purpose of fashioning a gentleman. The Faerie Queene depicts six "private" morals through allegorical narrative of knights, ladies, monsters, and quests. Spenser did not complete the poem according to his original design, though his effort attracted the patronage of the highest parts of the Elizabethan court.
For a major portion of his life, Spenser served as an administrator in a colonial government in Ireland. He wrote a treatise on the colonial project that is often called genocidal. He was driven from his home by Irish combatants, and shortly after he died in London.
Spenser profoundly influenced John Milton, who cited Spenser with approval in his own writing. Perhaps most importantly, Milton learned from the successes and failures Spenser's attempt at an English epic.
This page is a tag of:
The Shepheardes Calender: January, Virgil, Colin clout, John Milton, Pastoral, Teaching notes, 10 Sept. 2014, His clownish gifts, Epic, A thousand sithes I curse that carefull hower,, Edmund Spenser, Wherein I longd the neighbour towne to see:, vnnethes, couth, EK's gloss, All so my lustfull leafe is drye and sere, His clownish gifts and curtsies I disdaine,, Yet all for naught: [such] sight hath bred my bane., Hobbinol, Whilome thy fresh spring flowrd, and after hasted, So broke his oaten pype, and downe dyd lye., My musing mynd, yet canst not, when thou should:, My timely buds with wayling all are wasted:, His kiddes, his cracknelles, and his early fruit., Ah God, that loue should breede both ioy and payne., Rosalind, Thy sommer prowde with Daffadillies dight., I loue thilke lasse, (alas why doe I loue?), The blossome, which my braunch of youth did beare,, Ah foolish Hobbinol, thy gyfts bene vayne:, Stoure, I loue, And now is come thy wynters stormy state,, And am forlorne, (alas why am I lorne?), With breathed sighes is blowne away, & blasted,, Colin them gives to Rosalind againe., Sere, auaile, Thy mantle mard, wherein thou mas-kedst late., Shee deignes not my good will, but doth reproue,, And from mine eyes the drizling teares descend,, sithes, overhaile, Wherefore my pype, albee rude Pan thou please,, And of my rurall musick holdeth scorne., As on your boughes the ysicles depend., neighbour towne, Colins Embleme., Yet for thou pleasest not, where most I would:, Shepheards deuise she hateth as the snake,, It is not Hobbinol, wherefore I plaine,, And eke tenne thousand sithes I blesse the stoure,, Thou barrein ground, whome winters wrath hath wasted,, And thou vnlucky Muse, that wontst to ease, And laughes the songes, that Colin Clout doth make., Albee my loue he seeke with dayly suit:, Wherein I sawe so fayre a sight, as shee., Art made a myrrhour, to behold my plight:, Both pype and Muse, shall sore the while abye. View all tags
| Previous page on path | The Miltonic Timeline, page 6 of 12 | Next page on path |
Discussion of "Edmund Spenser"
Add your voice to this discussion.
Checking your signed in status ...