Spenser’s pageant figure reminds us that September is the month of harvest: Next him September marchéd, eek on foot, Yet was he heavy laden with the spoil Of harvest‘s riches, which he made his boot, And him enriched with bounty of the soil: In his one hand, as fit for harvest’s toil He held a […]
Spenser
December 1 Edmund Spenser
And after him came next the chill December: Yet he, through merry feasting which he made And great bonfires, did not the cold remember; His Saviour’s birth his mind so much did glad. Upon a shaggy-bearded Goat he rode, The same wherewith Dan Jove in tender years, They say, was nourished by th’Idaean maid; And […]
October 1 Edmund Spenser
Then came October full of merry glee; For yet his noul was totty of the must, Which he was treading in the wine-fats‘sea, And of the joyous oil, whose gentle gust Made him so frolick and so full of lust: Upon a dreadful Scorpion he did ride, The same which by Diana’s doom unjust Slew […]
November 6 Edmund Spenser
Spenser’s pageant figure, as you may guess, is lurking not far away: Next was November; he full gross and fat As fed with lard, and that right well might seem; For he had been a-fatting hogs of late, That yet his brows with sweat did reek and steam, And yet the season was full sharp […]
August 6 Edmund Spenser
Spenser, three hundred years before Housman, already felt that man’s highest ideals had left the Earth, but he was echoing the much older legend of Astraea, goddess of Justice, who was said to have left the world at the end of the Golden Age: The sixth was August, being rich arrayed In garment all of […]
July 1 Edmund Spenser
THE FAERIE QUEENE Then came hot July, boiling like to fire, That all his garments he had cast away; Upon a lion raging yet with ire He boldly rode, and made him to obey: It was the beast that whilom did foray The Nemaean forest, till the Amphitrionide Him slew, and with his hide did […]
June 1 Edmund Spenser
And after her came jolly June arrayed All in green leaves, as he a Player were; Yet in his time he wrought as well as played That by his plough-irons mote right well appear. Upon a Crab he rode ….. Spenser’s pageant figure is that of the Green Man, symbolizing the full growth of grass, […]
May 3 Edmund Spenser
From the Fairie Queene Edmund Spenser Milton looked back with respect to “our sage and serious poet, Spenser”, as he called him; and Spenser’s Queen of the months shares with Milton’s May the characteristics of the classical goddess, Flora: Then came fair May, the fairest maid on ground, Decked all with dainties of her season’s […]
April 1 Spenser
From THE CALENDAR OF NATURE by Edmund Spenser The legend of Jupiter, disguised as a bull, carrying off Europa by swimming across the seas of Crete, is consonant with the freshness and activity of the season. APRILNext came fresh April, full of lustyhed, And wanton as a kid whose horne new buds Upon a bull […]
March 1 Edmund Spenser
As February was formerly reckoned to be the last month of the year, so March was the first, dedicated to Mars, the god of War, resuming control after the compulsory truce of Winter, but also to the peaceful occupation of seed-sowing. Here is the leader of Spenser’s Pageant: First sturdy March, with brows full sternly […]