Spenser and the Poetics of Pastoral: A Study of the World of Colin CloutThe Shepheardes Calender (1579) signalled Spenser's desire to assume the role of an English Virgil and at the same time his readiness to leave behind the pastoral world of his apprenticeship and his early persona, Colin Clout. Yet Spenser was twice to return to the pastoral world of Colin Clout, first in Colin Clouts Come Home Againe (written 1591, published 1595), and then again in the sixth and last complete book of The Faerie Queene. In Spenser and the Poetics of Pastoral, David Shore considers the structure of the moral eclogues of the Calender as it defines the pastoral vision that informs and unifies the entire poem. He then examines the themes of poetic idealism and courtly corruption in Colin Clout and sees in their confrontation Spenser's questioning of the public foundations of the poet's heroic endeavour. Finally, he considers Calidore's pastoral retreat in The Faerie Queene and finds in it support for the argument that Spenser's greatest poem is essentially complete. Pastoral is a highly self-conscious genre, especially in Spenser's explorations of the imaginative world of Colin Clout. By bringing together Spenser's three versions of that world, Spenser and the Poetics of Pastoral contributes to a richer appreciation of the pastoral works themselves and to a better understanding of the shape of Spenser's literary career as a whole. |
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Spenser and the Poetics of Pastoral: A Study of the World of Colin Clout David R. Shore Limited preview - 1985 |
Common terms and phrases
Acidale action affirmation Algrind Allegory Aminta Arcadia assertion awareness Blatant Beast Book bounds of pastoral Calender's Calidore Calidore's Candidus Colin Clout Colin's love commitment Coridon courtly Cuddie Cuddie's Cynthia death debate delight devotion Diggon doth eclogue's Edmund Spenser Elizabethan epic fable Faerie Queene February flocks grace harmony Harry Berger heaven heroic Hobbinol imaginative knight Legend of Courtesy loss love for Rosalind lover lowly Mantuan Meliboe metaphorical Mopso Mopso's moral eclogues Morrell Morrell's Muses nature Nevertheless non-pastoral nought nymphs Palinode Palinode's paradise pastoral contentment pastoral ideal pastoral poet pastoral song pastoral world Pastorella perfection Piers pipe plaintive pleasance poet's poetic poetic debate poetry portrayal praise pype realization realm recreation recreative ideal reflection Renaissance sheepe Shepheardes Calender shepherd simply sing sorrow suggests Tasso's temporal thee Thenot Theocritus theyr Thomalin thou timeless Tityrus tradition trans University Press unto verse versions of pastoral vertue Virgil virtue winter words youth and age