Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser (c. 1552 - January 13, 1599) was an English poet, and a contemporary of William Shakespeare. Waning in popularity and influence, Spenser is still a controversial figure due to his zeal for the destruction of the Irish culture. Spenser siphoned Ireland's Celtic tradition for poetic source material.

Extracts

Faerie Queene. Book v. Proem. St. 3.

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Let none then blame me, if in discipline

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Of vertue and of civill uses lore,

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I doe not forme them to the common line

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Of present dayes, which are corrupted sore,

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But to the antique use which was of yore,

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When good was onely for it selfe desyred,

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And all men sought their owne, and none no more;

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When Justice was not for most meed out-hyred,

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But simple Truth did rayne, and was of all admyred.

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Spenser's Epithalamion is the most admired of its type in the English language. It was written on the occasion of his wedding to his young bride, Elizabeth Boyle.

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Spenser's effort to match the epic proportions of the Aeneid earned his place in English literature. He devised a verse form for The Faerie Queene that has come to be known as the "Spenserian stanza," and which has since been applied in poetry by the likes of William Wordsworth, John Keats and Alfred Lord Tennyson, to name a few.

Related Topics:
Aeneid - Spenserian stanza - William Wordsworth - John Keats - Alfred Lord Tennyson

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The number of English poets influenced by Spenser are manifest, but he is often overshadowed by his immediate successor, William Shakespeare. For a revitalizing look at Spenser, look to Camille Paglia's Sexual Personae.

Related Topics:
William Shakespeare - Sexual Personae

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Two poets who became influenced by Edmund Spenser were John Milton, author of Paradise Lost, and John Keats.

Related Topics:
John Milton - Paradise Lost - John Keats

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Faerie Queene. Book iii. Canto xi. St. 54.

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And as she lookt about, she did behold,

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How over that same dore was likewise writ,

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Be bold, be bold, and every where Be bold,

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That much she muz'd, yet could not construe it

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By any ridling skill, or commune wit.

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At last she spyde at that roomes upper end,

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Another yron dore, on which was writ,

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Be not too bold; whereto though she did bend

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Her earnest mind, yet wist not what it might intend.

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