after four years of undergrad and two years of grad school, my bookshelf has grown to have a dedicated one and a half shelves of poetry. today, I will briefly talk of three of them. I hope at least one of these books/collections piques your interest.
the faerie queene - Edmund Spenser
The Faerie Queene is an epic poem by Edmund Spenser that tells the allegorical tale of six knights on a quest for virtue. It delves into themes of chivalry, morality, and the power of good over evil.
the first epic poem I ever read. una and duessa and redcrosse are characters so fascinating, complex, courageous that I have based some of my own characters on them. beyond the epic itself, Spenser’s poem was so great in honoring Queen Elizabeth I that he was given a yearly pension for life (of £50). wow! I highly recommend any Norton Edition of this epic as both a way to understand it better and understand the epic’s presence in history.
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