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. |
From inside the book
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Page 4
... important questions for our understanding of Spenser's poetic development . So too does his final return to Colin's pastoral world , in Book vi of The Faerie Queene ( published 1596 ) , where Sir Calidore , frustrated and wearied by his ...
... important questions for our understanding of Spenser's poetic development . So too does his final return to Colin's pastoral world , in Book vi of The Faerie Queene ( published 1596 ) , where Sir Calidore , frustrated and wearied by his ...
Page 7
... importance of the calendar form , especially in view of the work that has been done to demonstrate the accuracy of the title - page description of the poem as " Conteyning twelve Æglogues propor- tionable to the twelve monethes . " The ...
... importance of the calendar form , especially in view of the work that has been done to demonstrate the accuracy of the title - page description of the poem as " Conteyning twelve Æglogues propor- tionable to the twelve monethes . " The ...
Page 8
... important article published in 1956 , argues that " the pastoral life is identified with the antagonists in the moral eclogues , " and when the " timeless pastoral world is placed in the order of time given by the Calendar form ... the ...
... important article published in 1956 , argues that " the pastoral life is identified with the antagonists in the moral eclogues , " and when the " timeless pastoral world is placed in the order of time given by the Calendar form ... the ...
Page 10
... important step of his literary career . 2 PASTORAL POETICS The dominant characteristic of pastoral life is its commitment to tranquillity : Content who lives with tryed state , Neede feare no chaunge of frowning fate . ( " September ...
... important step of his literary career . 2 PASTORAL POETICS The dominant characteristic of pastoral life is its commitment to tranquillity : Content who lives with tryed state , Neede feare no chaunge of frowning fate . ( " September ...
Page 12
... importance than the loves of Titirus and Corydon , " 33 and from parsing the Latin and ( if teachers ' hopes were fulfilled ) absorbing the " morall discipline " of the Eclogues of Baptista Spagn- uoli , the " good old Mantuan ...
... importance than the loves of Titirus and Corydon , " 33 and from parsing the Latin and ( if teachers ' hopes were fulfilled ) absorbing the " morall discipline " of the Eclogues of Baptista Spagn- uoli , the " good old Mantuan ...
Contents
3 | |
7 | |
The Shepheardes Calender The Pastoral Image | 68 |
Spensers Return to Pastoral in Colin Clouts Come Home Againe | 105 |
Pastoral and the End of Epic in The Faerie Queene | 132 |
Notes | 171 |
Index | 189 |
Other editions - View all
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