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Name:- Komal Shahedadpuri M.
Course:-M.A English
Sem:- 1
Batch:- 2016 – 2018
Roll no:- 21
Enrollment no:-PG2069108420170027
Submitted to:- Smt. S.B.Gardi Dept. Of
English MKBU
Email ID:- komaltara1311@gmail.com
Paper no:-1 The Renaissance Literature
Topic:- Edmund Spenser as a Poet
Introduction
Edmund Spenser belongs to Elizabethan age , a remembered period of English history a time of a great wave of English nationalism as well as a period in which the arts flourished. This age is considered as a golden age and English Renaissance because many great writers and poets were belonged to this age. In great poets , Spenser and Chaucer are often studied together as poets of Renaissance. Spenser's The Faerie Queene was written in English and it broke new ground with respect to what could be achieved with this language.
His Life
Edmund Spenser is supposed to be one of the greatest non- dramatic poets and his life can be summed up in three parts 1) Cambridge where he became aware about the Classics and Italian poems 2) London where he experienced the glammour and disappointment of court life 3) Ireland wherein he came across the beauty and imagery of old Celtic poetry and it was at this place that he found time to write his master piece.
Spenser was born in east- London and was very poor , his education begun in Merchant Tailor's school in London and his studies continued in Cambridge. It is at Cambridge that he started reading classics in literature here he fell in love with the writing of his beloved master Chaucer .
After living Cambridge he went to the North of England and in Leicester he finished “Shephard's Calender” and also came across Philip Sidney along with the favorites of Queen Elizabeth ,he found this place full of disbelief and flattery.
In Kilcolman , surrounded by great natural beauty,Spenser finished his first three books of The Faerie Queene. In 1589, Raleigh visited him, the poem with enthusiasm, hurried the poet off to London and presented him to Elizabeth. The first three books met with instant success when published and were acclaimed as the greatest work in the English Language.Then poet turned bake to exile ,that it to Ireland again.
Soon after his return,Spenser fell in love with his beautiful Elizabeth,an Irish girl,after which he wrote the famous poem “Amoretti” or sonnets in her honor and afterwards represented her in The Faerie Queene ,as the beautiful woman dancing among the Graces. In 1594, he married Elizabeth celebrating his wedding with his “Epithalamion”,one of the most beautiful wedding hymns in any language.
Spenser's next visit to London was in 1595,when he published “Astrophel”,an elegy on the death of his friend Sidney ,and three more books of Faerie Queene on this visit he lived again Leicester house ,now occupied by new favorite Essex ,where he probably met Shakespeare and the other literary lights of Elizabethan age. Kilcolman, the ancient house of Desmond, was one of the first places attacked by the rebels and Spenser barely escaped with his wife and two children. It is supposed that some unfinished parts of the Faerie Queene were burnt in the castle.
From the sock of this frightful experience Spenser never recovered. He returned to England heartbroken and in the following years (1599) he died in an Inn at Westminister. According to Ben Jonson he died “For want of bread” but whether that is a poetic way of saying that he had lost his property or that he actually died of destution ,will probably never be known. He was buried beside his master Chaucer in Westminister Abbey, the poets of that age thronging to his funeral and, according to Camden, “Casting their elegies and the pens that had written them into his Tomb.
Spenser's Works
The Faerie Queene is without doubt considered to be his greatest work ,and is an incomplete English epic poem by Spenser. The first half was published in 1590 ana a second installment in 1596. He originally wanted to write 24 books each of which was to recount the adventure and triumph of a knight who represented a moral virtue, each of virtues appears as a Knight fighting with his opposing vice, and the poem tells the story of the conflicts. It is therefore considered to be purely allegorical, not only in its personified virtues but also in its representation of life as a struggle between good and evil. Spenser could completed only 6 books , celebrating(based on)
1) Holliness
2) Temperance
3) Chastity
4) Friendship
5) Justice
6) Courtesy
we have also a fragment of the seventh, treating of Constancy , but rest of this book was not written or else was lost in Fire at Kilcolman ,the first three books are by far the best.
Argument of The Faerie Queene
From the introductory letter ,we learn that the hero visits the Queen's Court in Faery land while she is holding a twelve days festival. On each day some distressed person appears unexpectedly tells a woeful story of dragons of enchantresses or of distressed beauty or virtue and asks for a champion to right the wrong and to let the opperesed go free. Sometimes a Knight volunteers or begs for the dangourous misson again the duty is assigned by the queen and the journeys and adventures of these Knights are the subjects of the several books. The first recounts the adventures of Redcross Knight, representing holiness and lady Una ,representing Religion , their contests are symbolial of the World -wide struggle between Virtue and faith on the one hand and sin and heresy on the other . The second book tells the story of Sir Guyon or Temperance,the third of Britomartis,representing Chastity , the forth,fifthand sixth of Cambel and Triamond (friendship),Artegall(justice) and Sir Calidore(courtsy).
If you read Homer or Virgil,you know his subject in the first strong line, if you read Milton's Epic, the introduction gives you the theme but Spenser's great poem with the exception of a single line in the prologue, “Fierce warres and faithful love shall moralize my song”.- gives hardly a hint of what is coming.As to the meaning of the allegorical figures one is generally in doubt. In the first three books the shadowy Faerie Queene sometimes represents the glory of God and sometimes Elizabeth ,who was naturally flattered by the parallel. Britomartis is also Elizabeth, the Radcross Knight is Sidney , the model of Englishman ,So on through the wide range of contemporary characters and events till the allegory becomes as difficult to follow as the second part of the Goethe's Faust.
Poetic Form
For the Faerie Queene , Spenser invented a new verse form which has been called the Spenserian Stanza. Because of its rare beauty it has been much used by nearly all our poets in their best work. The new stanza was an improved form of Ariosto's Ottava Rima (eight lines stanza) and bears a close resemblance to one of Chaucer's most musical verse forms in the “Monk's Tale”.Spenser's stanza is in nine lines, and it usually write rhyme as ABABBCBCC. A few selections from the first book ,which is best worth reading ,are reproduced here to show the style and melody of the verse.
“A Gentle Knight was Pricking on the plaine,
Ycladd in mightie armes and silver shielde,
Wherein old dints of deepe wounds did,remaine
The cruell markes of many a bloody fielde”
(Faerie Queene)
His minor poems
Amongest his minor poems “Shephard's Calender”(1579)is his other master piece.It consist of twelve Pastoral poems, it was one for each month of the year.The themes were generally Rural life, Nature,Love in the fields and Speakers are Shephards and Shephardesses.
Importance of Shephard's Calender
This first published work of Spenser is noteworthy in at least Four respect 1) It marks the appearance of the first National poet in two centuries. 2) It shows again the variety and melody of English Verse which had been largely a tradition since Chaucer. 3) It was our first Pastoral the begining of a long series of English Pastoral compositions modeled on Spenser, and as such exerted a strong influence on subsequent literature and 4) It makes the real begining of the outbursts of great Elizabethan Poetry.
His other noteworthy poems are “ Mother Hubbard's Stain” - a satire on society, “Astrophel”- an elegy on death of Sidney, “Amoretti”- or sonnets to his Elizabeth, the marriage hymn “Epithalamion” and four “Hymn” on Love,Beauty,Heavenly Love and Heavenly Beauty. There are many other poems and collection of poems but these are his worth reading poems.
Characteristics of Spenser's poetry
1) A Perfect Melody
2) A Rare Sense of Beauty
3) A Splendid (wonderful) Imagination
4) A Loafty Moral Purity and Seriousness
5) A Delicate Idealism
6) His Foundness for Obsolete words (rare used)
7) His Foundness for Neologism ( new words)
Spenser as a Painter Poet
Spenser also known as painter poet for his Pictorial Quality in his “The Faerie Queene”. Spenser paints a picture of a woman who is heavy-laden with sadness and overwhelming worry but there is a goodness and purity about her also,Spenser presents her effortlessly to the reader.
As a poetical painter , using words and rhythm in the place of external form and color , [Spenser] is perhaps , unrivaled. Spenser has an imagination that creates magical places that we can see in our minds.
Spenser as a love poet
Spenser has taken his theory of love and beauty from the dialogue of Plato in “The Phaedrus”and “The Symposium”. In Spenser's creation one finds the element of love and beuaty in prominence which evoke various emotions in reader's heart. Spenser not only discussed the moral values but also Sensuous beuaty in a Marvelous way.
Spenser as poet's poet
Spenser is regarded as the poet's poet and the second father of English Poetry (Chaucer being a real father) because he rendered incalculable service to English Poetry in variety of ways and left behind his models of poetic exellence to be imitated and followed by a host of poets who came in his wake. He was just like Rising Sun of Elizabethan Age.
He called Poet's Poet because of the very high quality of his poetry and he enjoyed “The Pure Artistry of his Craft”, also many poets through that he was a great poet.
Conclusion
Thus, Edmund Spenser is known through the ages for his great/ high Poetic Genius , in later age (restoration) there is influence of Spenser. That , there is a group of poets ,(followers) of Spenser , they are known as The English Spenserians : the poetry of Giles Fletcher ,George Wither, Micheal Drayton , Phineas Fletcher and Henry More.
References
www.image.google.com
www.acu.edu.au.com
www.enotes.com
www.shodh.net
Original book by W.J Long
Name:- Komal Shahedadpuri M.
Course:-M.A English
Sem:- 1
Batch:- 2016 – 2018
Roll no:- 21
Enrollment no:-PG2069108420170027
Submitted to:- Smt. S.B.Gardi Dept. Of
English MKBU
Email ID:- komaltara1311@gmail.com
Paper no:-1 The Renaissance Literature
Topic:- Edmund Spenser as a Poet
Introduction
Edmund Spenser belongs to Elizabethan age , a remembered period of English history a time of a great wave of English nationalism as well as a period in which the arts flourished. This age is considered as a golden age and English Renaissance because many great writers and poets were belonged to this age. In great poets , Spenser and Chaucer are often studied together as poets of Renaissance. Spenser's The Faerie Queene was written in English and it broke new ground with respect to what could be achieved with this language.
His Life
Edmund Spenser is supposed to be one of the greatest non- dramatic poets and his life can be summed up in three parts 1) Cambridge where he became aware about the Classics and Italian poems 2) London where he experienced the glammour and disappointment of court life 3) Ireland wherein he came across the beauty and imagery of old Celtic poetry and it was at this place that he found time to write his master piece.
Spenser was born in east- London and was very poor , his education begun in Merchant Tailor's school in London and his studies continued in Cambridge. It is at Cambridge that he started reading classics in literature here he fell in love with the writing of his beloved master Chaucer .
After living Cambridge he went to the North of England and in Leicester he finished “Shephard's Calender” and also came across Philip Sidney along with the favorites of Queen Elizabeth ,he found this place full of disbelief and flattery.
In Kilcolman , surrounded by great natural beauty,Spenser finished his first three books of The Faerie Queene. In 1589, Raleigh visited him, the poem with enthusiasm, hurried the poet off to London and presented him to Elizabeth. The first three books met with instant success when published and were acclaimed as the greatest work in the English Language.Then poet turned bake to exile ,that it to Ireland again.
Soon after his return,Spenser fell in love with his beautiful Elizabeth,an Irish girl,after which he wrote the famous poem “Amoretti” or sonnets in her honor and afterwards represented her in The Faerie Queene ,as the beautiful woman dancing among the Graces. In 1594, he married Elizabeth celebrating his wedding with his “Epithalamion”,one of the most beautiful wedding hymns in any language.
Spenser's next visit to London was in 1595,when he published “Astrophel”,an elegy on the death of his friend Sidney ,and three more books of Faerie Queene on this visit he lived again Leicester house ,now occupied by new favorite Essex ,where he probably met Shakespeare and the other literary lights of Elizabethan age. Kilcolman, the ancient house of Desmond, was one of the first places attacked by the rebels and Spenser barely escaped with his wife and two children. It is supposed that some unfinished parts of the Faerie Queene were burnt in the castle.
From the sock of this frightful experience Spenser never recovered. He returned to England heartbroken and in the following years (1599) he died in an Inn at Westminister. According to Ben Jonson he died “For want of bread” but whether that is a poetic way of saying that he had lost his property or that he actually died of destution ,will probably never be known. He was buried beside his master Chaucer in Westminister Abbey, the poets of that age thronging to his funeral and, according to Camden, “Casting their elegies and the pens that had written them into his Tomb.
Spenser's Works
The Faerie Queene is without doubt considered to be his greatest work ,and is an incomplete English epic poem by Spenser. The first half was published in 1590 ana a second installment in 1596. He originally wanted to write 24 books each of which was to recount the adventure and triumph of a knight who represented a moral virtue, each of virtues appears as a Knight fighting with his opposing vice, and the poem tells the story of the conflicts. It is therefore considered to be purely allegorical, not only in its personified virtues but also in its representation of life as a struggle between good and evil. Spenser could completed only 6 books , celebrating(based on)
1) Holliness
2) Temperance
3) Chastity
4) Friendship
5) Justice
6) Courtesy
we have also a fragment of the seventh, treating of Constancy , but rest of this book was not written or else was lost in Fire at Kilcolman ,the first three books are by far the best.
Argument of The Faerie Queene
From the introductory letter ,we learn that the hero visits the Queen's Court in Faery land while she is holding a twelve days festival. On each day some distressed person appears unexpectedly tells a woeful story of dragons of enchantresses or of distressed beauty or virtue and asks for a champion to right the wrong and to let the opperesed go free. Sometimes a Knight volunteers or begs for the dangourous misson again the duty is assigned by the queen and the journeys and adventures of these Knights are the subjects of the several books. The first recounts the adventures of Redcross Knight, representing holiness and lady Una ,representing Religion , their contests are symbolial of the World -wide struggle between Virtue and faith on the one hand and sin and heresy on the other . The second book tells the story of Sir Guyon or Temperance,the third of Britomartis,representing Chastity , the forth,fifthand sixth of Cambel and Triamond (friendship),Artegall(justice) and Sir Calidore(courtsy).
If you read Homer or Virgil,you know his subject in the first strong line, if you read Milton's Epic, the introduction gives you the theme but Spenser's great poem with the exception of a single line in the prologue, “Fierce warres and faithful love shall moralize my song”.- gives hardly a hint of what is coming.As to the meaning of the allegorical figures one is generally in doubt. In the first three books the shadowy Faerie Queene sometimes represents the glory of God and sometimes Elizabeth ,who was naturally flattered by the parallel. Britomartis is also Elizabeth, the Radcross Knight is Sidney , the model of Englishman ,So on through the wide range of contemporary characters and events till the allegory becomes as difficult to follow as the second part of the Goethe's Faust.
Poetic Form
For the Faerie Queene , Spenser invented a new verse form which has been called the Spenserian Stanza. Because of its rare beauty it has been much used by nearly all our poets in their best work. The new stanza was an improved form of Ariosto's Ottava Rima (eight lines stanza) and bears a close resemblance to one of Chaucer's most musical verse forms in the “Monk's Tale”.Spenser's stanza is in nine lines, and it usually write rhyme as ABABBCBCC. A few selections from the first book ,which is best worth reading ,are reproduced here to show the style and melody of the verse.
“A Gentle Knight was Pricking on the plaine,
Ycladd in mightie armes and silver shielde,
Wherein old dints of deepe wounds did,remaine
The cruell markes of many a bloody fielde”
(Faerie Queene)
His minor poems
Amongest his minor poems “Shephard's Calender”(1579)is his other master piece.It consist of twelve Pastoral poems, it was one for each month of the year.The themes were generally Rural life, Nature,Love in the fields and Speakers are Shephards and Shephardesses.
Importance of Shephard's Calender
This first published work of Spenser is noteworthy in at least Four respect 1) It marks the appearance of the first National poet in two centuries. 2) It shows again the variety and melody of English Verse which had been largely a tradition since Chaucer. 3) It was our first Pastoral the begining of a long series of English Pastoral compositions modeled on Spenser, and as such exerted a strong influence on subsequent literature and 4) It makes the real begining of the outbursts of great Elizabethan Poetry.
His other noteworthy poems are “ Mother Hubbard's Stain” - a satire on society, “Astrophel”- an elegy on death of Sidney, “Amoretti”- or sonnets to his Elizabeth, the marriage hymn “Epithalamion” and four “Hymn” on Love,Beauty,Heavenly Love and Heavenly Beauty. There are many other poems and collection of poems but these are his worth reading poems.
Characteristics of Spenser's poetry
1) A Perfect Melody
2) A Rare Sense of Beauty
3) A Splendid (wonderful) Imagination
4) A Loafty Moral Purity and Seriousness
5) A Delicate Idealism
6) His Foundness for Obsolete words (rare used)
7) His Foundness for Neologism ( new words)
Spenser as a Painter Poet
Spenser also known as painter poet for his Pictorial Quality in his “The Faerie Queene”. Spenser paints a picture of a woman who is heavy-laden with sadness and overwhelming worry but there is a goodness and purity about her also,Spenser presents her effortlessly to the reader.
As a poetical painter , using words and rhythm in the place of external form and color , [Spenser] is perhaps , unrivaled. Spenser has an imagination that creates magical places that we can see in our minds.
Spenser as a love poet
Spenser has taken his theory of love and beauty from the dialogue of Plato in “The Phaedrus”and “The Symposium”. In Spenser's creation one finds the element of love and beuaty in prominence which evoke various emotions in reader's heart. Spenser not only discussed the moral values but also Sensuous beuaty in a Marvelous way.
Spenser as poet's poet
Spenser is regarded as the poet's poet and the second father of English Poetry (Chaucer being a real father) because he rendered incalculable service to English Poetry in variety of ways and left behind his models of poetic exellence to be imitated and followed by a host of poets who came in his wake. He was just like Rising Sun of Elizabethan Age.
He called Poet's Poet because of the very high quality of his poetry and he enjoyed “The Pure Artistry of his Craft”, also many poets through that he was a great poet.
Conclusion
Thus, Edmund Spenser is known through the ages for his great/ high Poetic Genius , in later age (restoration) there is influence of Spenser. That , there is a group of poets ,(followers) of Spenser , they are known as The English Spenserians : the poetry of Giles Fletcher ,George Wither, Micheal Drayton , Phineas Fletcher and Henry More.
References
www.image.google.com
www.acu.edu.au.com
www.enotes.com
www.shodh.net
Original book by W.J Long
very well written and much useful to new comer like us thank you
ReplyDeleteI’m coming in rather late here but there’s something I’ve been wondering about this topic and You nicely cover this, Thanks for sharing such this nice article. Your post was really good. Some ideas can be made. About English literature. Further, you can access this site to read Faerie Queene as an Allegory
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