Why is Spenser called Renaissance Poet
Edmund Spenser is considered one of
the preeminent poets of the English language.
His
epic poem, The Faerie Queene, was written in honor of
Queen Elizabeth I and in celebration of the Tudor dynasty.
Edmund Spenser, who lived from 1552
to 1599, was one of the key literary figures of the English
Renaissance.
It was Charles Lamb who gave the
title ‘the poet’s poet” to Spencer. Spenser is very rightly called ‘the
child of Renaissance and Reformation’ as his works are the premium
expression and explanation of the ideals and principles of the Renaissance and
the reformation.
He was an extremely scholarly
poet, acquainted with the best models not only in English, but in Greek, Latin,
Italian, and French. Like Wyatt and Surrey, Spenser got his chief instinct from
Italy. He knew and respected Chaucer and the other old English poets, but his
real masters were Ludovico
Ariosto and Tasso.
Characteristics of Renaissance
Characteristics of Renaissance poetry
were wit, beauty, and truth. Poets used repetition to highlight their themes.
Shakespeare was the master of the dramatic genre during the Renaissance. His
skills in characterization and word creation were evidence of his genius.
The word renaissance means
'rebirth.' The world was emerging from the Middle, or 'Dark,' Ages. The
movement actually began in Italy and spread to England, and the English
Renaissance occurred from 1500 to 1688.
Key characteristics of the
Renaissance:
the idea of the divine right of kings
to rule.
the development of humanistic ideas,
such as the dignity of man.
It was a time of scientific inquiry
and exploration.
*This was also the time of the
Protestant Reformation, and the invention of the printing press*
Edmund
Spenser’s 1590 epic poem, The Faerie Queene,
is one of the most special undertakings
in the history of epic poetry. The poem, which contains six books and a
fragment of a seventh, also stands as one of the longest works of poetry in the
English language. Spenser was grounded in contemporary poetic ideology, and
sought to prove in practice what Renaissance poets like Sir Philip Sidney had
laid out in theory. Central to that theory was the idea that imitation of past
traditions was essential to great poetry.
The
Faerie Queene as a Renaissance Poetry
The Faerie Queene is not only a moral poem but
also a work of art drawing its inspiration from various forms of art cultivated
in the age of Renaissance. It expresses the Renaissance zeal to catch beauty
wherever it exists and create its every possible form.
The Faerie Queene is a poem that could not have
been produced except under the impact of Renaissance. In it Spenser has created
a world of magic in which the imagination and the senses run riot, and while we
read it, we seem to forget the moral allegory.
Spenser has used allegory of queen, which is the
major feature of Renaissance Poetry.
Amoretti
and Epithalamion as a Renaissance Poetry
Characteristics of Renaissance poetry
were wit, beauty, and truth. Poets used repetition to highlight their themes
With Great with and Beauty Spenser has
written both, the Sonnets of Amoretti as well as Epithalamion.
The Petrarchan theme is repeated in
Sonnets and the Marriage theme is repeated in Epithalamion.
Both of the Poetries are realistic
and a truth is inherent.
Comments
Post a Comment