Poem 11
TEll
me
ye
merchants
daughters
did
ye
see
So
fayre
a
creature
in
your
towne
before,
So
sweet,
so
louely,
and
so
mild
as
she,
Adornd
with
beautyes
grace
and
vertues
store,
Her
goodly
eyes
lyke
Saphyres
shining
bright,
Her
forehead
yuory
white,
Her
cheekes
lyke
apples
which
the
sun
hath
rudded,
Her
lips
lyke
cherryes
charming
men
to
byte,
Her
brest
like
to
a
bowle
of
creame
vncrudded,
Her
paps
lyke
lyllies
budded,
Her
snowie
necke
lyke
to
a
marble
towre,
And
allher
body
like
a
pallace
fayre,
Ascending
vppe
with
many
a
stately
stayre,
To
honors
seat
and
chastities
sweet
bowre.
Why
stand
ye
still
ye
virgins
in
amaze,
Vpon
her
so
to
gaze,
Whiles
ye
forget
your
former
lay
to
sing,
To
which
the
woods
did
answer
and
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.