Poem 6
My
loue
is
now
awake
out
of
her
dreame,
and
her
fayre
eyes
like
stars
that
dimmed
were
With
darksome
cloud,
now
shew
theyr
goodly
beams
More
bright
then
Hesperus
his
head
doth
rere.
Come
now
ye
damzels,
daughters
of
delight,
Helpe
quickly
her
to
dight,
But
first
come
ye
fayre
houres
which
were
begot
In
loues
sweet
paradice,
of
Day
and
Night,
Which
doe
the
seasons
of
the
yeare
allot,
And
al
that
euer
in
this
world
is
fayre
Doe
make
and
still
repayre.
And
ye
three
handmayds
of
the
Cyprian
Queene,
The
which
doe
still
adorne
her
beauties
pride,
Helpe
to
addorne
my
beautifullest
bride
And
as
ye
her
array,
still
throw
betweene
Some
graces
to
be
seene,
And
as
ye
vse
to
Venus,
to
her
sing,
The
whiles
the
woods
shal
answer
&
your
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.