Edmund Spenser was a famous English, poet who lived in the time of Queen Elizabeth. He was born in London in 1553 and received his education at Cambridge, where he was a sizar. There is a mulberry tree which Spenser is said to have planted still standing in the garden of the college.
His early boyhood was passed in London, with frequent visits among the glens of northern England.
Spenser left Cambridge when he was twenty-four years old, and spent several years with his relations in the north of England. On his return to London, he published a series of twelve poems named after the months, and called “The Shephearde’s Calender.” This gained him a name as the first poet of the day. The next summer he went to Ireland as secretary to Lord Grey.
Several years later he was awarded the Castle of Kilcolman for his services. Here he was visited by Sir Walter Raleigh. Spenser had written three books of “The Faerie Queene,” his greatest poem, and Raleigh listened to them as the two poets sat beneath the alder trees beside the River Mulla, which flowed through the castle grounds. Raleigh was delighted with the poem, and persuaded Spenser to accompany him to England, where he was presented to the Queen.
The first three books of “The Faerie Queene” were dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. It was the first great allegorical poem that England had produced, and it has never lost its power.
Spenser possessed a wonderful imagination, and had but to close his eyes and he was in an enchanted land.