Monday,27 September.2021
This blog post is response of thinking activity which assigned by Dr. Dilip Barad Sir.
- Write in brief about Chaucer or Edmund Spencer or Ben Jonson or Francis Bacon or on any of their works.
In the whole history of english literature, Elizabethan Age is know as The Golden age. The period was full of Dramatic personalities, enthusiastic atmosphere and especially Individuality in literature which all were under the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1. There were many writers or poets and so many literary personalities were also gives the golden part of their writing styles.
Edmund Spenser:
As William J.Long mentioned,
"only a poor scholar knows how to create for himself he read the classics, made acquaintance with the great Italian poets, and wrote numberless little poems of his own."
Three Periods Of His Life:
Edmund Spenser was an english poet(1552-1599),birth and death place both are London.Chaucer was his "beloved"He was a busy man of affairs but in him the poet and the scholar always predominates. He wrote "View Of the State Of Ireland (1596) Only one prose work. Its only prose work in which he submits a plan for"pacifying the oppesses and rebellious people." In his life,there was one financial problem occurred that a yearly pension of fifty pounds given by queen Elizabeth, but rarely paid, and the poet turned back to exile, that is, to Ireland again.
In 1594 he married Elizabeth, an Irish girl and also celebrating his wedding with his "Epithalamion," one of the most beautiful wedding hymns in any language written by him. In 1595, he published "Astrophel,"an elegy on the death of his friend Sidney, and three more books of the Faery Queen.
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 destitution.
According to Camden, "casting their elegies and the pens that had written them into his tomb."
About his work:
As we know that Spenser is the famous for his writing on magical or lyrical way of poetry. His poems are the treasury of the power which always attract to readers towards him. Also, the power of beauty is strongly shown by readers. I think, Spenser shown himself as the great example of individuality of Elizabethan Age. Here, one list about the famous literary legends of the Elizabethan Age:
- Sir Phillip Sidney
- Edmund Spenser
- Walter Raleigh
- Richard Hooker
- Christopher Marlowe
- William Shakespeare
- John Webster
Why Spenser known as Poet's Poet?
In very short answer by W.J.Long that:
It is Spenser's idealism, his love of beauty and his exquisite melody which have caused him to be known as "Poet's Poet"
Characteristics of Spenser's poetry:
- a perfect melody
- a rare sense of beauty
- a splendid imagination
- the thronging ideals of Renaissance
- a lofty moral purity and seriousness
- a dedicate idealism, which could make all nature and every common thing beautiful
About Faery Queen:
Faery Queen is very famous or great work of Spenser. First three parts of book were published in 1589 and later on again three were published in 1596. One of the longest poem in english language. Spenser's original plan regarding this poem that will write twenty four books, but its was not possible. He completed only six books. Some key points about the poem are:
- adventure and triumph of knight
- each one represented a moral value
- twelve private Moral Virtues
- poems tells the story of the conflicts
- purely allegorical
- life as struggle between good and evil
- characters like, Knight of Red cross representing Holiness,the second with Temperance, the third with Chastity,the fourth with friendship, fifth with Justice and last sixth with Courtesy.
- use of Spenserian Stanza as invited a new verse of poetic form by Spenser.
Comparison between Chaucer and Spenser:
As we know that Spenser known for his Morality poems. Likewise Faery Queen or Shepherd's Calendar. In both works his central idea is Morality. But my argument is that why he not choose religion or other political matters which were occurred on that time?
As William J. Long said,
"Under her administration the English national life progressed by gigantic leaps rather than by slow historical process, and English literature reached the very highest point of its development."
RESOURCES:
Images:
Books:
William J. Long History
Edward Albert History
No comments:
Post a Comment