Poem 1
YE
learned
sisters
which
haue
oftentimes
beene
to
me
ayding,
others
to
adorne:
Whom
ye
thought
worthy
of
your
gracefull
rymes,
That
euen
the
greatest
did
not
greatly
scorne
To
heare
theyr
names
sung
in
your
simply
layes,
But
ioyed
in
theyr
prayse.
And
when
ye
lift
your
owne
mishaps
to
mourne,
Which
death,
or
loue,
or
fortunes
wreck
did
rayse,
Your
string
could
soone
to
sadder
tenor
turne,
And
teach
the
woods
and
waters
to
lament
Your
dolefull
dreriment.
Now
lay
those
sorrowfull
complaints
aside,
And
hauing
all
your
heads
with
girland
crownd,
Helpe
me
mine
owne
loues
prayses
to
resound,
Ne
let
the
same
of
any
be
enuide,
So
Orpheus
did
for
his
owne
bride,
So
I
vnto
my
selfe
alone
will
sing,
The
woods
shall
to
me
answer
and
my
Eccho
ring.
Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser (born 1552/53, London, England—died January 13, 1599, London) 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. In 1598 rebels attacked and burned Kilcolman Castle, forcing Spenser and his family to flee to Cork. In December he returned to England, where he delivered a report on the Irish crisis at Whitehall on Christmas Eve. Three weeks later, on 13 January 1599, he died, perhaps of illness brought on by exhaustion. He was buried soon after in the south transept of Westminster Abbey in the Poets’ Corner.