Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1857-09-16
ISL 9.
Gutamuniratiuus
For the Spirit of the Age.
The Poet, Spenser.



BY INVALID.
As a cool, trickling riyulet with CLASSY
basin, amid the sylvan recesses OF a oarK
waving forest, is sought for at fervid noontlde
by the weary and parched inhabitants OF the
fields and groves. so 'Fairie Spenser,' Is the
fountain to which poets have approached,
and from which they have drank in coPlous
measures of Inspiration.
Spenser is emphatically the Poets Poet
as be has been characterised BY the delicate
criticism Of Lamb. Spenser is indeed the
Poet for Poets, and it is owing to this tact
that he is not popular with men Of business
and unpoetic temperaments with people,
who, as Shakespeare says, hear no music
Sperssr is as different from Shakespeare,
as Shakespeare is from Milton or Chaucer.-'
There is not the same sharpness of outline,
vividness Of character or expression, as In
Chaucer and Shakespeare, nor the heavy SUBJ
Unity of Milton. There is a sort Of rich,
warm mist thrown over 'Faerie Sponsors
verse out Of which the gliding forms of
knights and Sylphs, sea gods and 'hermits
boar and airy forms and shapes Of enchant-
ment are continually peeping, and the only
sounds which disturb the dreaming continue
ty are the silvery sound Of waterfalls, the
songs of fairy circles, the music OF rustic
SatYrs, dancing With cloven hoof, or the clash
vi II OuIHieuCu ulLuo " AMAA6NN
encounter dread under the red ripe glorles
of the setting sun
He is like some great potent magician OF
Ind, or Araby the best who waves his
wand amid the mysteries Of his art, and all
ewes and ears follow him and turn In ner.
vous excitement, with his slightest motion,
and listen to his lowest murmurs.
Shakespeare loved and was u student oil
Spenser, and has left US a compliment to him;
Spenser 70 me, whose deep couceit is such
As passing all %conceit, needs no defence /;
This compliment Is the more valuable from
the fact that Spenser is the only one of Shak'
epeare's contemporaries Of whom he has made
the slightest mention in his works.
By Sponsors deep c%onceit,' Shakespeare
may be supposed TO mean his great magma
tive power, the creative faculty OF the Poet
And not only did Shakespeare take new
measures Of inspiration from him, but tn
more modern Poets, beginning with Thomson
and Collins, and Gray, were not ashamed I
be beholden to him, and Lord Byron though
80 much Of his verse, that he used his yer
etanEa thus showing the estimation in whic
be is held by Poets, aud the length of tim
during which he has held that r~eputatic
unsullied, a period Of nearly three hundre
years. >,
Spenser will never be generally read Il
she of the Fasrie Queen ~startles some, ar
others will not bring inclinations suited to
perusal. A person ought to experience I
true pleasure in reading it, to give loo
reins TO bis imagination and believe, with
ardent poets temperament, every fairy see
and being as q gospel TRUTH
Spenser Is the Poet ofthe ideal not of t
real and tangible. His men and WON
when good and pure, are such as might
looked for before the fall. Yet while
thus exaggetates character, he does not &C
fine himself to the insipidly beautiful;
has his bass reliefs his dark shading of
picture; he gives us Despair in his ca
that cursed man low sitting on the grour
and giants, and foul enchanters, with
unearthIy yigOr Of a Dante
A little lonely hermitage it was,
Down in adale, hard by q forests side,
Far from resort of people, that did pass
In travilI to and froe a little wyde
There as an holy chappen edifyde,
Wherein the hermite dewly wont to say
His holy things each morn and even ty
Thereby q christall streame did gently P
Which from a sacred f~ountaine welled f
away,
And here we will leave Spenser and
'Faerie Sons and his Giants, and Enc
ters, his Hermits and,h id Hermitages, W
Sacred Fountains will flow on to the Ell
time and with their gentle purling, de
our children, and children's children, tt
third and fourth generation, as they hav
lighted uslll
Elm Cottage, Va.