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Edmund Spenser Quotes

Poet

Edmund Spenser, a renowned English poet, was born in England in 1552. His poetry has had a profound impact on literature, with his epic poem 'The Faerie Queene' being hailed as a classic of English literature.

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All Men Heart Ifs Gentle Mind Doe Love May Fall Grace Heaven Sweet Bitter Deeds Grows Ill Poetry Wells World Firsts

Famous Edmund Spenser Quotes

“Through knowledge we behold the world's creation, How in his cradle first he fostered was; And judge of Nature's cunning operation, How things she formed of a formless mass.”

World Firsts Creation Judging Mass Operations Cunning Cradle

Book:The poetical works of Edmund Spenser: With memoir and critical dissertations

Source: The poetical works of Edmund Spenser: With memoir and critical dissertations

“Me seemes the world is runne quite out of square,From the first point of his appointed sourse,And being once amisse growes daily wourse and wourse.”

World Firsts Squares

Book:The Works of Edmund Spenser: With Observations of His Life and Writings

Source: The Works of Edmund Spenser: With Observations of His Life and Writings

“A circle cannot fill a triangle, so neither can the whole world, if it were to be compassed, the heart of man; a man may as easily fill a chest with grace as the heart with gold. The air fills not the body, neither doth money the covetous mind of man.”

Ifs Men World Mind Heart May Whole Body Grace Air Gold Circles Whole World Chests Covetousness Triangles

Author:Edmund Spenser

“All that in this world is great or gay, Doth, as a vapor, vanish and decay.”

World This World Gay Mortality Decay Vapor

Author:Edmund Spenser

“This iron world bungs down the stoutest hearts to lowest state; for misery doth bravest minds abate.”

World Mind Heart States Misery Iron Lowest

Author:Edmund Spenser

“One day I wrote her name upon the strand, But came the waves and washèd it away: Again I wrote it with a second hand, But came the tide and made my pains his prey. Vain man (said she) that dost in vain assay A mortal thing so to immortalise; For I myself shall like to this decay, And eke my name be wipèd out likewise. Not so (quod I); let baser things devise To die in dust, but you shall live by fame; My verse your virtues rare shall eternise, And in the heavens write your glorious name: Where, when as Death shall all the world subdue, Our love shall live, and later life renew.”

Men World Writing Made Said Hands Pain Dies Names Heaven Virtue One Day Fame Wave Dust Mortals Vain Glorious Live By Tides Decay Verses Our Love Prey Strands Second Hand

Author:Edmund Spenser

About the Author

Born: 1552
Died: January 13, 1599
Known for: Poet
Quotes: 153

Books & Sources

The poetical works of Edmund Spenser: With memoir and critical dissertationsRelated source material

The Works of Edmund Spenser: With Observations of His Life and WritingsRelated source material

Amoretti And EpithalamionRelated source material

Hymns. Visions. Elegiac poemsRelated source material

Minor poemsRelated source material

Poetical worksRelated source material

The Poetical Works of Edmund SpenserRelated source material

The Works of Mr. Edmund SpenserRelated source material

Books I and II of the Faerie queene: the mutability cantos, and selections from the minor poetryRelated source material

Delphi Complete Works of Edmund Spenser (Illustrated)Related source material

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