Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, COMMENDATORY VERSE FOR THE FAERIE QUEENE, by W. L. (16TH CENTURY)


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

COMMENDATORY VERSE FOR THE FAERIE QUEENE, by                    
First Line: When stout achilles heard of helen's rape
Last Line: W.L.
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets; Spenser, Edmund (1552-1599)


WHEN stout Achilles heard of Helens rape
And what revenge the states of Greece devisd:
Thinking by sleight the fatall warres to scape,
In womans weedes him selfe he then disguisde:
But this devise Ulysses soone did spy,
And brought him forth, the chaunce of warre to try.

When Spencer saw the fame was spredd so large,
Through Faery Land, of their renowned Queene,
Loth that his Muse should take so great a charge,
As in such haughty matter to be seene,
To seeme a shepeheard then he made his choice;
But Sydney heard him sing, and knew his voice.

And as Ulysses brought faire Thetis sonne
From his retyred life to menage armes,
So Spencer was by Sidneys speaches wonne
To blaze her fame, not fearing future harmes:
For well he knew, his Muse would soone be tyred
In her high praise, that all the world ad mired.

Yet as Achilles, in those warlike frayes,
Did win the palme from all the Grecian peeres,
So Spencer now, to his immortall prayse,
Hath wonne the laurell quite from all his feres.
What though his taske exceed a humaine witt?
He is excus'd, sith Sidney thought it fitt.
W.L.




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