The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-06-18

For more than a half centuy have
been an occasional reader OF Edmund
Spenser. | had read sorne minor
poems, and extracts from his master
piece. and that greatest OF all poems IN
celebration Of a marriage, The Epi-
thalaufon"-no doubt the sweetest,
the most charming Of all songs, IN
honor Of the uniting Of two lives ib
the most sacred martial bonds. But ~
was only last July that ] sat d0Hn 10
e serious, continued eadln or ms
immortal poem OF such -wife
fame. THE Faerfc Queene' as he
wrote it. 1t was d rather serious I'M
c~ertaking for | think 1 read $4,000
lines to complete all Of the six books.
Spenser planned TO q twelve
books. but only lived to complete six
1t is az we receive il "A very long
poem. possibly the longest among all
OF the greatest poems Of the world. 1t
struck me as being the longest L had
ever read-Ionger than
'IIfad;" tha Dante's Divine Com
edy.' or Tasso's Jerusalem DeliV-
cred" or De CaGnOen's "Lucald;'
or Millions Paradise Lost or Chau~
cers Canterbury Tales" or Goetne's
Faust or Wordsworths xcu
SION" or ~Tennysou's "Idylis OF the
King" or Byron's Don juan" or
BaiIey's "Festus." and some other IA
nous poems Of the world.
Edmund Spenser a the greatest
poet ever born in london he was
born in 1853, eleven years before
Shak espeare first saw the light There
ia but little known of Sponsors fam
lily, or his boyish history-less than
b. even known Of Shakespeare. We
know TO what school the latter went,
for instance, but we have no knowl-
edge concerning the formers school
days. We know that when sixteen
years Of age, he attended Cambridge
University, and remaining there from
1869 to 1876. he took the degree OF
NJ. A. His first poem known to (us,
Is 1.-The Shepherds Calendar" He
paid great worship to Queen Eliza
beth; and received from her a grant
Of more than 5000 acres of land in
the county Of Cork in Ireland. He went
first to ireland in 1880, as secretary
70 Lord Gray / do not under
take to give a sketch or
his Irish experiences in CON
nection with political connections His
home in Ireland is said to have been
one of rare attraction, for he had his
home among the green alders by the
Mullah's home" The castle was
known as Kilcolman. soft woodland
and savage hill, shadowY river glade,
rolling land were all there to gladden.
the poets heart with their changeful
beauty and tinge his verse with their
cOlors." This Is fine and from Eng
fish writing of sixty years ago. This
castle stood by a Beautiful lake and
mountain ranges gfrded the extensive
plains. Sir Walter Raleigh was q
close friend of Sponsors and visited
him at his home in Ireland. They re-
turned to England together. Spen-
ser described it in his Pastoral poem
ne entitled Colin Clouts come home
again This was in 1889. but the
poem appeared n next year. Raj
eigh urged upon his rarely endowed
poet friend to publish the first three
books of The Faerie Queene." which
he had written. IT was very fattering
to the British Queen. who gave
him a pension of fifty pounds,
which perhaps equalled then a
thousand or two dollars of our
pOor man. He returned to Ireland To-
indite more poetry, to cultivate his
farm. to serve as Clerk of the Coun-
I'll for Munster and later as Sheriff
Of Cork county. He married in 1894,
r lady who's family name does not
appear but her given name was Eliza
beth, and it was this marriage thai
Was so marvelIously celebrated in the
poem already referred to above. In
october, 1898. a terrible rebellion oc-
CURED, and Spenser with his wife
barely escaped with their lives. but
heir little child persisted in the sack
ng of the castle by the Infatuated
mob. Three months later. in 1899, on
he 10th of January, the great poet
lied at an inn in London. He was
buried in the great Abbey in london
where SO many of England's greatest
men are entombed. Near him lay
the body of the illustrious genius,
Godfrey Chaucer. who died on the
25th of October, 1400, but who was
not buried in Westminster Abbey, but
near by. Thus passed into the life
beyond one of the worlds greatest
poets no doubt, and who ranks in
the opinion of a few of the foremost
critics next to Shakespeare among the
men of genius of the English speaking
race. He was but forty-seven years
Of age, five years than
his grave. Among moderns the two
most extraordinary men who have
lived upon this earth died at fifty-two
Shakespeare and Napoleon.
] must not omit mentioning that
the earliest and most endeared friend
of Spensar was the widely known Sir
Philip Sidney, & poet and soldier of
rare fame. His death on the fateful
battlefield Of Zutphen, a city near the
river Rhine, has made him even more
generally known than his fine poetic
remains that are SO much praised by
writers OF critical taste and insight.
Sponsor said of him in defeating his
Shepherds Calendar" to him written
while visiting Sidney at his ancestral
seat, known as Penshurst, that he was
worthy of all titles. both of learning
and c~hivalry.' Sidney advanced the
interests of his wonderfully gifted
friend, and when he himself fell in
battle he lost his tenderest and
most ~endearing earthly friend. Spen-
ser'S life at court was q comparative
failure, although he was favored by
the then potential Earl of Leicester,
who was thought to be so peculiarly
associated with the Virgin" Queen.
Sponsors noble soul was wounded
In 1.-The house of his friends" and he
felt the repeated disappointments
most acutely. He often referred to
his disbursements, and one stanza
he wrote is a marvel of pathos,
beauty II sorrow. The last four
lines show that the whole stanza was
written with the very hearts blood
OF Ine poet. Let me cite the first
Two lines and the last four:
Full little knowest thou who has not
tried,
-