The Shorter Poems (Penguin Classics)

Rating:
Summary: Spenser is a stupendous writer!
Review: There are few writers in this world (or any other conceiveable) that meet the writing skills that a certain English poet, writer and genius did posess, i.e., that of Edmund Spenser. Spenser is defintely in the realm of that of his contemporaries, e.g., Philip Sidney, William Shakespeare et al. "The Shepherds Calender" is awesome in it is range, depth and intellectual prowess. The rest of the poems (which are to many to recall without having a photographic memory; something that I unfortunately do not posess) are also on a level that is rarely seen or read. As written earlier, I do consider him, i.e., Spenser to be one of the finest writers/poets to have written in the English language and I would verily say, state and write that if one is an affecionado of world class poetry; then Spenser is the natural , rightfull and logical selection and every learned man/scholar should have either read or being the owner of this book, i.e., The Shorter Poems (Penguin Classics) by Edmund Spenser, Richard A. McCabe (Editor) to be truly be called a civlized man.

Rating:
Summary: Don't just read his epic Faerie Queene
Review: This book contains all of Spenser's important poems with the exception of the Faeie Quuene which Penguin also sells. This book is hefty at almost 900 pages, 500 of which are poems including his Shepherd Calendar. I rarely read introductions and notes but found them helpful in the case of Spenser who uses some words that are archaic, but his verse is actually very easy to get the gist of almost immediately. I found reading it aloud (much to the annoyance of my sleepy cat) helped.
AS my first introduction to Spenser I was concerned about just how difficult the poems would be to understand, but as I said his language is actually understandable and even add to the enjoyment. I was surprised how emotionally affecting the poems still are, how modern in their concerns about politics, love, life and death. I have underlined sections that I plan to revisit. I agree with the other reviwer that Spenser is a major poet who should be read by all.