| The Shepheardes Calendar |
Article Index for The |
Information AboutThe Shepheardes Calendar |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT THE SHEPHEARDES CALENDER | |
| english poems | |
| shepheardes calender, the | |
| 1579 works | |
| SHOPPER'S DELIGHT | |
|
The poem introduces Colin Clout, a character borrowed from John Skelton , and depicts his life as a shepherd through the twelve months of the year. The ''Calender'' encompasses considerable formal innovations, anticipating the even more virtuosic ''Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia'' (The "Old" ''Arcadia,'' 1580), a similar series of pastorals by Philip Sidney , with whom Spenser was acquainted. It is also remarkable for the extensive commentary included with the work in its first publication, ascribed to an "E.K." E.K. is an intelligent, very subtle, and often deeply ironic commentator, and is frequently assumed to be an alias of Spenser himself. Soon after his publication of The Shepheardes Calendar, Spenser began writing his epic, The Faerie Queene . |