The Shorter Poems
Edmund Spenser - Author
ISBN 9780140434453 | 816 pages | 01 May 2000 | Penguin Classics | 5.07 x 7.79in | 18 - AND UP
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While The Faerie Queene counts as his masterpiece, it is in his shorter poetry that Edmund Spenser (c. 1552-99) showed his supreme versatility and skill as eulogist, satirist, pastoral poet and prophet.
The Shepheardes Calender marks a turning point in literary history, as the anonymous author confidently asserts his faith in the native vigour of the English language and stakes his claim to be the successor of Virgil and Chaucer. The Amoretti and Fowre Hymnes reveal an acute sense of how erotic and even religious love are shot through with vanity and narcissism. Mother Hubberds Tale - an Elizabethan Animal Farm - savagely satirizes the sexual jealousy and political disarray at the heart of the Queen's court. And even the Epithalamion, a rare celebration of consummated desire, is offset by far darker echoes.
This new Penguin Enlish Poets edition contains all Spenser's English poetry apart from The Faerie Queene, as well as his Latin verse (together with a full translation). Detailed notes illuminate his many allusions to biblical, classical and contemporary literature.
Chronology Introduction From A Theatre for Worldlings Epigrams Sonets
The Shepheardes Calender
From Letters (1580)
Complaints
Daphnaïda
Colin Clovts Come Home Againe
Amoretti and Epithalamion
Fowre Hymnes
Prothalamion
Commendatory Sonnets
Attributed Verses Notes; Abbreviations |
