The Faerie Queene

Spenser's allegorical epic for Gloriana's England, inventing its own nine-line stanza to hold a poem never finished.

Specifications & Metrics

author

Edmund Spenser

type

Allegorical epic poem

era

Elizabethan (1590–1596)

language

Early Modern English

verse form

Spenserian stanza

cantos count

6

Core Principles & Analysis

• Six books and a fragment appeared before Spenser's death; twelve were planned.
• Its nine-line Spenserian stanza was imitated from Burns to Byron and Keats.
• The poem's Gloriana allegorizes Elizabeth I and her England.

Sources

• Wikipedia: The Faerie Queene