Poem 12
BVt
if
ye
saw
that
which
no
eyes
can
see,
The
inward
beauty
of
her
liuely
spright,
Garnisht
with
heauenly
guifts
of
high
degree,
Much
more
then
would
ye
wonder
at
that
sight,
And
stand
astonisht
lyke
to
those
which
red
Medusaes
mazeful
hed.
There
dwels
sweet
loue
and
constant
chastity,
Vnspotted
fayth
and
comely
womanhood,
Regard
of
honour
and
mild
modesty,
There
vertue
raynes
as
Queene
in
royal
throne,
And
giueth
lawes
alone.
The
which
the
base
affections
doe
obay,
And
yeeld
theyr
seruices
vnto
her
will
Ne
thought
of
thing
vncomely
euer
may
Thereto
approch
to
tempt
her
mind
to
ill.
Had
ye
once
seene
these
her
celestial
threasures,
And
vnreuealed
pleasures,
Then
would
ye
wonder
and
her
prayses
sing,
That
al
the
woods
should
answer
and
your
echo
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.