Edmund Spenser

When the sap seems to have gone out of poetry and the patterns of lifehave grown too stereotyped, a new writer will sometimes appear likeheaven’s benediction with the demand for homelier things and a truerpoetic language. Lyrical Ballads in 1798 and A Shropshire Lad in 1896 wereliterary events of the same kind as The Shepherds’ Calendar 1 in 1579.Spenser 2 also aimed at fresher cadences, ballad simplicity, and a new socialphilosophy. He did not, any more than Wordsworth in 1798, stand quitealone, though for some years readers referred to him only as “the newpoet,” or by his modest pseudonyms, Colin Clout and “Immerito.” Thetwelve eclogues with which he made his debut are addressed to PhilipSidney in the most charming of all Spenser’s famous Dedications: Go, little book: thyself present, As child whose parent is unkent, To him that is the president Of noblesse and of chivalry. And if that Envy bark at thee, As sure it will, for succor flee Under the shadow of his wing; And asked, who thee forth did bring, A shepherd’s swain, say, did thee sing, All as his straying flock he fed; And when his honor has thee read, Crave pardon for thy hardihead.... And when thou art past jeopardy, Come tell me what was said of me, And I will send more after thee.