Edmund Spenser

There are a efw things about Spenser that you definitely need to know.

1. The Spensarian stanza. You need to be able to identify it. The rhyme scheme ABABBCBCC. The first eight lines are iambic pentameter, and the last line is iambic hexameter (called an alexandrine). The GRE, out of some love of anachronism, badly wants you to know what an alexandrine is, so learn it.
2. If you know that the language of his poetry is purposely antique, you will have no problem picking it out, especially since it doesn't really look like Chaucer, anyway; think of it as an imitation of Chaucher, and you approach a description of Spenser's poetry.

The Shepheardes Calendar

The first poem to earn him notability was a collection of eclogues called The Shepheardes Calendar, written from the point of view of various shepherds throughout the months of the year. It has been suggested that the poem is an allegory, or at least is meant to symbolize the state of humanity at large in a universal sense, as implied by its cyclical structure. The diversity of forms and meters, ranging from accentual-syllabic to purely accentual, and including such departures as the sestina in "August," gave Spenser's contemporaries a clue to the range of his powers and won him a good deal of praise in his day.

It is a pastoral allegory that employs various forms.

The central characters are Colin Clout, Hobbinol, and Rosalind. (you probably won't need to know this)

The Faerie Queene

The Faerie Queene is his major contribution to English poetry. The poem is a long allegory, in the epic form, of Christian virtues, tied into England's mythology of King Arthur. Spenser intended to complete twelve books of the poem, but managed only six before his death.

In The Faerie Queene, Spenser creates an allegory: The characters of his far-off, fanciful "Faerie Land" are meant to have a symbolic meaning in the real world. Major characters include Britomart, Duesa, Redcrosse, and Una.

It begins:

Lo I the man, whose Muse whilome did maske,
As time her taught in lowly Shepheards weeds,
Am now enforst a far unfitter taske,
For trumpets sterne to chaunge mine Oaten reeds,
And sing of Knights and Ladies gentle deeds;
Whose prayses having slept in silence long,
Me, all too meane, the sacred Muse areeds
To blazon broad emongst her learned throng:
Fierce warres and faithful loves shall moralize my song.

The Amoretti and The “Epithalamion ”

The Amoretti is a sonnet cycle or sequence composed of 89 sonnets. The "Epithalamion" is a wedding song derived from Latin originals. The epithalamion is composed in 24 immensely complex 18-line stanzas whose rhyme schemes vary but use Spenser's typical concatenation strategy to link each stage of the stanza together.

Spenserian sonnet

Edmund Spenser employed an a-b-a-b, b-c-b-c, c-d-c-d, e-e rhyme scheme - as evidenced in his Amoretti sequence. This form has not been particularly popular.

“ Whilst it is Prime ”

Fresh Spring, the herald of loves mighty king,
In whose cote-armour richly are displayd
All sorts of flowers, the which on earth do spring,
In goodly colours gloriously arrayd—
Goe to my love, where she is carelesse layd,
Yet in her winters bowre not well awake;
Tell her the joyous time wil not be staid,
Unlesse she doe him by the forelock take;
Bid her therefore her seife soone ready make,
To wayt on Love amongst his lovely crew;
Where every one, that misseth then her make,
Shall be by him amearst with penance dew.
Make hast, therefore, sweet love, whilst it is prime;
For none can call againe the passed time.

Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542)

Wyatt, along with Surrey, was the first to introduce the sonnet into English, with its characteristic final rhyming couplet. He wrote extraordinarily accomplished imitations of Petrarch's sonnets, including ' I find no peace ' (' Pace non trovo ') and ' Whoso List to Hunt.'

" Whoso List To Hunt "

Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind,
But as for me, hélas, I may no more.
The vain travail hath wearied me so sore,
I am of them that farthest cometh behind.
Yet may I by no means my wearied mind
Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore
Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore,
Sithens in a net I seek to hold the wind.
Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt,
As well as I may spend his time in vain.
And graven with diamonds in letters plain
There is written, her fair neck round about:
Noli me tangere, for Caesar's I am,
And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.

*Whoso list: whoever wishes
hind: female deer hélas: alas
vain travail: futile labor
deer: playing on the word "dear"
Sithens: since Noli me tangere: "touch me not"

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517-1547)

Surrey continued in Wyatt 's footsteps on the English sonnet form. Wyatt and Surrey, both often titled "father of the English sonnet", established the form that was later used by Shakespeare and others: three quatrains and a couplet, with a rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg. (KNOW THE RHYME SCHEME!)

DESCRIPTION OF SPRING,

WHEREIN EVERY THING RENEWS, SAVE ONLY THE LOVER.

THE soote season, that bud and bloom forth brings,
With green hath clad the hill, and eke the vale.
The nightingale with feathers new she sings;
The turtle to her make hath told her tale.
Summer is come, for every spray now springs,
The hart hath hung his old head on the pale;
The buck in brake his winter coat he slings;
The fishes flete with new repaired scale;
The adder all her slough away she slings;
The swift swallow pursueth the flies smale;
The busy bee her honey now she mings;
Winter is worn that was the flowers' bale.
And thus I see among these pleasant things
Each care decays, and yet my sorrow springs!

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