Thinking Activity - Edmund Spenser

Hello friends! 

I am Bhavna Sosa, a student of the department of English, Maharaja krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University. This blog is the part of my classroom activity that is given by our prof. Dr. Dilip Barad Sir.

First of all I would like to give a introduction about author.

    Edmund Spenser: (1552-1599)                               

  

                   "If poetry does not come as naturally   

                   as leaves to a tree, it had better not

                                        Come at all."

Ranks as the fore more English poet of the 16th century. Famous as the author of the unfinished epic poem "The Faerie Queene", he is the poet of an ordered yet passionate Elizabethan World.

Edmund Spenser was a man of is time and his work reflects the religious and humanistic ideals as well as the intense but critical patriotism of Elizabethan England.His contribution to English literature-in the form of a heightened and enlarged poetic vocabulary,a charming and flexible verse style and a rich fusing of the philosophic and literary  currents of the English Renaissance- entitle him to a rank not far remove from that of William Shakespeare and Jhon Milton.

Spenser was the son of a London tailor ,but his family seems to have had its origins in Lancashire. The poet was admitted to the nearly founded Merchant Taylor's school about 1561 as a "poor scholar." The curriculum at school included Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; music and drama were stressed and the English language was also a subject of study - then a novelty.

In 1569 went to Cambridge,where he entered Pembroke College as a sizar. He spent 7years at the university, gaining his bachelor of arts degree in 1572 and his  master arts degree in 1576. Recovered of the period reveal that Spenser's health was poor but that he had and excellent reputation as a student. He studied Italian,French, Latin and Greek read widely in classical literature and in the poetry of the modern languages; and authored some Latin verse. At Cambridge,Spenser  came to know Gabriel, Harvey, lecturer in rhetoric and man of letters, who proved to be a faithful and long term friend and adviser.

Spenser's contribution to English Language :

Improved English diction , style and verification. Then he made the language more musical. Imported foreign words, coined new words. Altered the meaning of words , made one word do the duty of another inter changed actives and passives.

His poetic style became a royal style which was beautiful, flexible and magnificent. 

Wordsworth finds Spenser as the embodiment of nobility, purity, and sweetness. He wrote for Spenser : 

                 "The gentleman bard,

                  Sweet Spenser, moving through his

                  Plaided heaven

                  With the moon's beauty and 

                  moon's soft pace

                  I called him Brother, Englishman

                  and friend."

                 

His other work :

       

    -  The Amoretti

    -  Epithalamion

    -  Astrophel

    -  The Four Gyms

    -  The Complaints

    - The Shepherd's Calendar

Let's discuss about ' The. Faerie Queene'

                                                         The  Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser. It is one of            the longest poems in English. It is written in Spenserian stanza .so it is allegorical poem about the brave knights of king Arthur's Court and Spenser stated in a  letter that the aim of publishing 'The Faerie Queene' was to   'fashion     a gentleman or noble person in virtuous and gentle.  discipline'.It is  a book about 6 virtues.                                                                                                                                           Spenser wanted to divided in to 6 books. So the  first 3  books were published in 1950.  And the last 3 books were published in 1596.The poem was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth who is represented in the poem as the Faerie Queene', Gloriana and Belphoebe. Due to this reason quick Elizabeth gave Edmund Spenser's pension for life.

The Faerie Queene represents six books are :

• The Virtue of Holiness /Truth
• The Virtue of Temperance
• The virtue of chastity
• The Virtue of Friendship
• The Virtue of Justice
• The Virtue of Courtesy

Important Facts about The Faerie Queene :

King Arthur appears in all the 6 books of The Faerie Queene. King Arthur is the central hero of The Faerie Queene and he is in a quest find The Faerie Queene. The Faerie Queene celebrates Queen Elizabeth and the Protestant Faith.

The faerie Queene is based on the book 'Morte d' Arthur by Thomas Malory. There is the fragment of the 7th book called ' The Mutability Cantos.

Thank you!