no mere allegorist
Who says elegies can't be absolutely beautiful? Reading Spenser's elegy on Philip Sidney, Astrophel, was extremely moving to me, more so even than Milton's Lycidas.
Here is a favourite few stanzas, about Stella discovering her Astrophel dying:She when she saw her loue in such a plight,
With crudled blood and filthie gore deformed:
That wont to be with flowers and gyrlonds dight,
And her deare fauours dearly well adorned
Her face, the fairest face that eye mote see,
She likewise did deforme like him to bee.
Her yellow locks that shone so bright and long,
As Sunny beames in fairest somers day:
She fiersly tore, and with outragious wrong
From her red cheeks the roses rent away.
And her faire brest the threasury of ioy,
She spoyld therof, and filled with annoy.
His palled face impictured with death,
She bathed oft with teares and dried oft:
And with sweet kisses suckt the wasting breath,
Out of his lips like lillies pale and soft.
And oft she cald to him, who answerd nought,
But onely by his lookes did tell his thought.
These stanzas are especially effective in that Spenser does not describe anything but actions---he implies (obviously) that Stella is consciously altering herself (in the spirit of Plato's "like loves like"), but we're also allowed to believe this is Spenser's interpretation of the way in which Stella acts, simply an ironic comment that she deforms herself out of grief to match his dead body.
The last line is most effective because his face is hidden, all we know is its function---his looks (glances, rather than appearance) tell his thought. What that thought is, the reader is free to determine for himself---of course, in matters of death, the imagination is the best at creating the most powerful image of Astrophel's "looks" and interpretation of his "thoughts." Here and there, Spenser gives his interpretation, but is very conscious that he is doing so.
What we are led to believe, compared with what we are actually told, help this section to be especially effective. If you don't think it's very good, that's probably because you should go and read the whole poem...
Also, notice the clever use of alliteration... "filthy gore" and "flowers and garlands" in one stanza, and the following line:His wasted life her weary lodge forwent
...which, of course, doesn't need any explanation. Contrasting words with one another by linking them phonetically, is something that happens a lot throughout this poem... these are just my favourite examples.
I wonder why this poem isn't more famous. Maybe I just have a thing for pastoral elegies... or maybe it's been too long since I last read Edmund Spenser... there's really no poet like him. From what I've seen, his narrative powers are matchless.
Here is a favourite few stanzas, about Stella discovering her Astrophel dying:She when she saw her loue in such a plight,
With crudled blood and filthie gore deformed:
That wont to be with flowers and gyrlonds dight,
And her deare fauours dearly well adorned
Her face, the fairest face that eye mote see,
She likewise did deforme like him to bee.
Her yellow locks that shone so bright and long,
As Sunny beames in fairest somers day:
She fiersly tore, and with outragious wrong
From her red cheeks the roses rent away.
And her faire brest the threasury of ioy,
She spoyld therof, and filled with annoy.
His palled face impictured with death,
She bathed oft with teares and dried oft:
And with sweet kisses suckt the wasting breath,
Out of his lips like lillies pale and soft.
And oft she cald to him, who answerd nought,
But onely by his lookes did tell his thought.
These stanzas are especially effective in that Spenser does not describe anything but actions---he implies (obviously) that Stella is consciously altering herself (in the spirit of Plato's "like loves like"), but we're also allowed to believe this is Spenser's interpretation of the way in which Stella acts, simply an ironic comment that she deforms herself out of grief to match his dead body.
The last line is most effective because his face is hidden, all we know is its function---his looks (glances, rather than appearance) tell his thought. What that thought is, the reader is free to determine for himself---of course, in matters of death, the imagination is the best at creating the most powerful image of Astrophel's "looks" and interpretation of his "thoughts." Here and there, Spenser gives his interpretation, but is very conscious that he is doing so.
What we are led to believe, compared with what we are actually told, help this section to be especially effective. If you don't think it's very good, that's probably because you should go and read the whole poem...
Also, notice the clever use of alliteration... "filthy gore" and "flowers and garlands" in one stanza, and the following line:His wasted life her weary lodge forwent
...which, of course, doesn't need any explanation. Contrasting words with one another by linking them phonetically, is something that happens a lot throughout this poem... these are just my favourite examples.
I wonder why this poem isn't more famous. Maybe I just have a thing for pastoral elegies... or maybe it's been too long since I last read Edmund Spenser... there's really no poet like him. From what I've seen, his narrative powers are matchless.