Poems by Edmund Spenser

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Poem 11

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,

by Edmund Spenser

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,

by Edmund Spenser

Amoretti XXII: This Holy Season

This holy season, fit to fast and pray,

Men to devotion ought to be inclin'd:

Therefore I likewise on so holy day,

For my sweet saint some service fit will find.

Her temple fair is built within my mind,

In which her glorious image placed is,

On which my thoughts do day and night attend,

Like sacred priests that never think amiss.

by Edmund Spenser

Amoretti LXXIV: Most Happy Letters

Most happy letters, fram'd by skilful trade,

With which that happy name was first design'd:

The which three times thrice happy hath me made,

With gifts of body, fortune, and of mind.

The first my being to me gave by kind,

From mother's womb deriv'd by due descent,

The second is my sovereign Queen most kind,

That honour and large richesse to me lent.

by Edmund Spenser

An Hymne of Heavenly Love

Love, lift me up upon thy golden wings

From this base world unto thy heavens hight,

Where I may see those admirable things

Which there thou workest by thy soveraine might,

Farre above feeble reach of earthly sight,

That I thereof an heavenly hymne may sing

Unto the God of Love, high heavens king.

Many lewd layes (ah! woe is me the more!)

Edmund Spenser

A Ditty

In praise of Eliza, Queen of the Shepherds

SEE where she sits upon the grassie greene,

(O seemely sight!)

Yclad in Scarlot, like a mayden Queene,

And ermines white:

Upon her head a Cremosin coronet

With Damaske roses and Daffadillies set:

Bay leaves betweene,

by Edmund Spenser

Easter

MOST glorious Lord of Lyfe! that, on this day,

Didst make Thy triumph over death and sin;

And, having harrowd hell, didst bring away

Captivity thence captive, us to win:

This joyous day, deare Lord, with joy begin;

And grant that we, for whom thou diddest dye,

Being with Thy deare blood clene washt from sin,

May live for ever in felicity!

by Edmund Spenser

Sonnet LXVII

Lyke as a huntsman after weary chace,

Seeing the game from him escapt away:

sits downe to rest him in some shady place,

with panting hounds beguiled of their pray.

So after long pursuit and vaine assay,

when I all weary had the chace forsooke,

the gentle deare returnd the selfe-same way,

thinking to quench her thirst at the next brooke.

by Edmund Spenser

The Faerie Queene, Book VI, Canto X

THE SIXTE BOOKE OF THE FAERIE QUEENE

Contayning

THE LEGEND OF S. CALIDORE

OR OF COURTESIECANTO X

Calidore sees the Graces daunce,

To Colins melody:

The whiles his Pastorell is led,

Into captivity.

by Edmund Spenser

My Love Is Like To Ice

My love is like to ice, and I to fire:

How comes it then that this her cold so great

Is not dissolved through my so hot desire,

But harder grows the more I her entreat?

Or how comes it that my exceeding heat

Is not allayed by her heart-frozen cold,

But that I burn much more in boiling sweat,

And feel my flames augmented manifold?

by Edmund Spenser

Epithalamion

Ye learned sisters which have oftentimes

Beene to me ayding, others to adorne:

Whom ye thought worthy of your gracefull rymes,

That even the greatest did not greatly scorne

To heare theyr names sung in your simple layes,

But joyed in theyr prayse.

And when ye list your owne mishaps to mourne,

Which death, or love, or fortunes wreck did rayse,

by Edmund Spenser

Amoretti III: The Sovereign Beauty

The sovereign beauty which I do admire,

Witness the world how worthy to be praised:

The light whereof hath kindled heavenly fire

In my frail spirit, by her from baseness raised;

That being now with her huge brightness dazed,

Base thing I can no more endure to view;

But looking still on her, I stand amazed

At wondrous sight of so celestial hue.

by Edmund Spenser