Edmund Spenser
English poet whose The Faerie Queene is the longest epic poem in the English language, an allegorical celebration of Queen Elizabeth I and Protestant virtues. He also invented the Spenserian sonnet form.
Works
- The Faerie QueeneEpic romance of knights, magic, and virtue set in allegorical Faerie realm of spiritual virtue
- AmorettiSonnet sequence celebrating courtship and marriage through Renaissance poetic convention
- EpithalamionLyric poem celebrating the speaker's wedding day with ornate Renaissance verse
- The Shepheardes CalenderEarly pastoral poem cycle tracking the seasons and love through shepherd's yearlong journey
- Mutabilitie CantosPhilosophical cantos on change and mutability exploring chaos in an ordered universe