Edmund Spenser

Introduction
Youth and education
Early works
Career in Ireland
The Faerie Queene and last years
Legacy

Quotes References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images & Videos

Learn about the 15th earl of Desmond rebellion against the English crown and the formation of the Munster Plantation

Illustration from an edition of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene.

At a Glance

Edmund Spenser summary

Quizzes

Illustration of "The Lamb" from "Songs of Innocence" by William Blake, 1879. poem; poetry

A Study of Poetry

4:043 Dickinson, Emily: A Life of Letters, This is my letter to the world/That never wrote to me; I'll tell you how the Sun Rose/A Ribbon at a time; Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul

Famous Poets and Poetic Form

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) only confirmed photograph of Emily Dickinson. 1978 scan of a Daguerreotype. ca. 1847; in the Amherst College Archives. American poet. See Notes:

Poetry: First Lines

Books. Lord Alfred Tennyson. Lord Byron. Poetry. Reading. Literacy. Library. Antique. A stack of four antique leather bound books.

Poets and Poetry of Great Britain Quiz

Related Questions

How did Christianity shape the themes of Edmund Spenser’s poetry?
How did Edmund Spenser defend Lord Grey’s harsh policies in Ireland?
How did Edmund Spenser influence later English poets such as John Milton, Lord Byron, and Percy Bysshe Shelley?
How did Italian romance influence the structure of The Faerie Queene?
How did Sir Walter Raleigh help Edmund Spenser publish The Faerie Queene?
How did Virgil’s Aeneid influence Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene?
How did the Irish uprising of 1598 affect Edmund Spenser and his Kilcolman estate?
How did the conflict between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism appear in Edmund Spenser’s writing?
How do Amoretti and Epithalamion tell the story of Edmund Spenser’s courtship and marriage?
How does Gloriana represent Queen Elizabeth I in The Faerie Queene?
How is the Spenserian stanza structured?
How many books did Edmund Spenser originally plan for The Faerie Queene?
How many books of The Faerie Queene did Edmund Spenser complete?
How many eclogues are included in The Shepheardes Calender?
What duties did Edmund Spenser perform while serving Lord Grey in Ireland?
What political ideas did Edmund Spenser argue for in A View of the Present State of Ireland?
What role did Edmund Spenser serve for Bishop John Young of Rochester?
What role does King Arthur play in The Faerie Queene?
What was the Smerwick massacre, and how might it have affected Edmund Spenser’s poetry?
When and where was Edmund Spenser born?
When did Edmund Spenser receive his Bachelor of Arts degree from Cambridge?
When were Books IV through VI of The Faerie Queene published?
When were the first three books of The Faerie Queene published?
Where did Edmund Spenser go to school as a child?
Where was Edmund Spenser buried after his death in 1599?
Which Romantic poets later used the Spenserian stanza?
Which classical and European writers influenced Edmund Spenser’s poetry?
Which languages did Edmund Spenser study at Merchant Taylors’ grammar school?
Which virtue does the Red Cross Knight represent in The Faerie Queene?
Who does the shepherdess Elisa represent in The Shepheardes Calender?
Who is Colin Clout in The Shepheardes Calender?
Who was Elizabeth Boyle, and when did she marry Edmund Spenser?
Who was Gabriel Harvey, and how did he know Edmund Spenser?
Who was Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, in Edmund Spenser’s career?
Who was Sir Philip Sidney, and how did he support Edmund Spenser?
Why did Edmund Spenser add a longer ninth line to the Spenserian stanza?
Why did Edmund Spenser choose to build his career in Ireland rather than England?
Why did Edmund Spenser dedicate The Shepheardes Calender to Sir Philip Sidney?
Why did English officials establish plantations in Munster during Edmund Spenser’s lifetime?
Why was Edmund Spenser classified as a sizar at the University of Cambridge?
Why was The Faerie Queene written?
Why was The Shepheardes Calender important to English Renaissance literature?
What were Sir Walter Scott’s influences?
What did Sir Walter Scott write?
What jobs did Sir Walter Scott have?
What is Rudyard Kipling known for?
How did Rudyard Kipling become famous?
What was Charlotte Brontë’s childhood like?
Where did Charlotte Brontë go to school?
Who was C.S. Lewis?
What is C.S. Lewis famous for?
What was C.S. Lewis’s religion?

Literature Poetry Poets L-Z

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External Websites

Poetry Foundation - Biography of Edmund Spenser
Dictionary of Irish Biography - Biography of Edmund Spenser
Princeton University - Edmund Spenser
Maynooth University Research Archive Library - Edmund Spenser and Transhistorical Memory in Ireland (PDF)
University of Cambridge - Department of English - Spenser Online - Biography of Edmund Spenser

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Edmund Spenser - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Edmund Spenser

English poet

Written by

A. Kent Hieatt

Emeritus Professor of English, University of Western Ontario, London. Author of Short Time's Endless Monument: The Symbolism of the Numbers in Spenser's Epithalamion and others; coeditor of Spenser's...

A. Kent Hieatt

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

History

Edmund Spenser (born 1552/53, London, England—died January 13, 1599, London) was an English poet whose long allegorical poem The Faerie Queene is one of the greatest in the English language. It was written in what came to be called the Spenserian stanza. Little is certainly known about Spenser. He was related to a noble Midlands family of Spencer, whose fortunes had been made through sheep raising. His own immediate family was not wealthy. He was...

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