Shorter Poems

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While The Faerie Queene is his masterpiece, Edmund Spenser showed his supreme versatility and skill as eulogist, satirist, pastoral poet, and prophet in his shorter poetry. This new edition demonstrates the point. Included in this volume are The Shepheardes Calendar, twelve poems that mark a turning point in literary history, as the anonymous author confidently asserts his faith in the native vigor of the English language; the Amoretti and Hymnes, which reveal an acute sense of how erotic and even religious love are shot through with vanity and narcissism; Mother Hubberds Tale, an Elizabethan Animal Farm; and the Epithalamion, a rare celebration of consummated desire that is offset by far darker echoes. To assist readers with Spenser's many allusions to biblical, classical, and contemporary literature, Richard A. McCabe provides an insightful Introduction and detailed notes.