Edmund Spenser

1
Edmund Spenser

• Rebecca Nevetral
• And
• Stephanie Turski

2
Biography

• Born in 1552
• Educated in London and went to the University at
  Cambridge
• Went to service in Ireland and hoped to gain a
  place in court
• Became the secretary to the Lord Deputy of
  Ireland
• Was great friends with Sir Philip Sidney and
  their works were printed together in 1595
• Died in 1599

3
Poetic Career

• Concerned the most with moral criticism, natural
  beauty, and experience of style and language in
  classical meters
• A pastoral poet
• Thought to be influenced by Barnabe Googe
• First original work was The Sheapheards Calendar
  in 1579 which began the English literary Golden
  Age

4
The Faerie Queene

• Spensers major work started in 1590
• First poem ever written in Spenserian verse
• Allegorical work dedicated to Elizabeth I, the
  Queen of England
• Each book focused on one virtue
• Holiness, temperance, chastity, friendship,
  justice, and courtesy

5
The Spenserian Stanza

• Main meter is iambic pentameter
• A b a b b c b c c rhyme scheme
• Final line hexameter with 6 feet of poetry

6
Spenserian Sonnet

• Has Petrarchan and Shakespearean sonnet
  influences
• Shakespearean sonnet - set up based more on the 3
  quatrain and a couplet system
• Petrarchan tradition- the conclusion follows from
  the argument or issue set up in the earlier
  quatrains
• Often idealizes or praises a mistress by focusing
  on body parts
• Almost like an objective or scientific view of a
  lover