Edmund Spenser
There are a efw things about Spenser that you definitely need to know.
1. The Spensarian stanza. You need to be able to identify it. The rhyme scheme ABABBCBCC. The first eight lines are iambic pentameter, and the last line is iambic hexameter (called an alexandrine). The GRE, out of some love of anachronism, badly wants you to know what an alexandrine is, so learn it.
2. If you know that the language of his poetry is purposely antique, you will have no problem picking it out, especially since it doesn't really look like Chaucer, anyway; think of it as an imitation of Chaucher, and you approach a description of Spenser's poetry.
The Shepheardes Calendar
The first poem to earn him notability was a collection of eclogues called The Shepheardes Calendar, written from the point of view of various shepherds throughout the months of the year. It has been suggested that the poem is an allegory, or at least is meant to symbolize the state of humanity at large in a universal sense, as implied by its cyclical structure. The diversity of forms and meters, ranging from accentual-syllabic to purely accentual, and including such departures as the sestina in "August," gave Spenser's contemporaries a clue to the range of his powers and won him a good deal of praise in his day.
It is a pastoral allegory that employs various forms.
The central characters are Colin Clout, Hobbinol, and Rosalind. (you probably won't need to know this)
The Faerie Queene
The Faerie Queene is his major contribution to English poetry. The poem is a long allegory, in the epic form, of Christian virtues, tied into England's mythology of King Arthur. Spenser intended to complete twelve books of the poem, but managed only six before his death.
In The Faerie Queene, Spenser creates an allegory: The characters of his far-off, fanciful "Faerie Land" are meant to have a symbolic meaning in the real world. Major characters include Britomart, Duesa, Redcrosse, and Una.
It begins:
Lo I the man, whose Muse whilome did maske,
As time her taught in lowly Shepheards weeds,
Am now enforst a far unfitter taske,
For trumpets sterne to chaunge mine Oaten reeds,
And sing of Knights and Ladies gentle deeds;
Whose prayses having slept in silence long,
Me, all too meane, the sacred Muse areeds
To blazon broad emongst her learned throng:
Fierce warres and faithful loves shall moralize my song.
The Amoretti and The “Epithalamion”
The Amoretti is a sonnet cycle or sequence composed of 89 sonnets. The "Epithalamion"
is a wedding song derived from Latin originals. The epithalamion is composed
in 24 immensely complex 18-line stanzas whose rhyme schemes vary but use Spenser's
typical concatenation strategy to link each stage of the stanza together.
Spenserian sonnet
Edmund Spenser employed an a-b-a-b, b-c-b-c, c-d-c-d, e-e rhyme scheme - as evidenced in his Amoretti sequence. This form has not been particularly popular.
“ Whilst it is Prime”
Fresh Spring, the herald of loves mighty king,
In whose cote-armour richly are displayd
All sorts of flowers, the which on earth do spring,
In goodly colours gloriously arrayd—
Goe to my love, where she is carelesse layd,
Yet in her winters bowre not well awake;
Tell her the joyous time wil not be staid,
Unlesse she doe him by the forelock take;
Bid her therefore her seife soone ready make,
To wayt on Love amongst his lovely crew;
Where every one, that misseth then her make,
Shall be by him amearst with penance dew.
Make hast, therefore, sweet love, whilst it is prime;
For none can call againe the passed time.