Quotes by Edmund Spenser

About Edmund Spenser:

Edmund Spenser is recognized as one of the premier craftsmen of nascent Modern English verse, and is often considered one of the greatest poets in the English language.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

But O the exceeding grace Of highest God, that loves his creatures so, And all his works with mercy doth embrace, That blessed angels, he sends to and fro, To serve to wicked man, to serve his wicked foe.

Edmund Spenser

So furiously each other did assayle, As if their soules they would attonce haue rent Out of their brests, that streames of bloud did rayle Adowne, as if their springes of life were spent; That all the ground with purple bloud was sprent, And all thei...

Edmund Spenser

For love is a celestial harmony Of likely hearts compos'd of stars' concent, Which join together in sweet sympathy, To work each other's joy and true content, Which they have harbour'd since their first descent Out of their heavenly bowers, where the...

Edmund Spenser

Aye me, how many perils do enfold The righteous man, to make him daily fall? Were not, that heavenly grace doth him uphold, And steadfast truth acquite him out of all.

Edmund Spenser

Why then should witless man so much misweene That nothing is but that which he hath seene?

Edmund Spenser

Yet gold all is not, that doth gold seem, Nor all good knights, that shake well spear and shield: The worth of all men by their end esteem, And then praise, or due reproach them yield.

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 m...

Edmund Spenser

My love is like to ice, and I to fire; How comes it then that this her cold so great Is not dissolv'd through my so hot desire, But harder grows the more I her entreat? Or how comes it that my exceeding heat Is not delay’d by her heart-frozen cold;...

Edmund Spenser

Men call you fayre, and you doe credit it, For that your self ye daily such doe see: But the trew fayre, that is the gentle wit, And vertuous mind, is much more praysd of me. For all the rest, how ever fayre it be, Shall turne to nought and loose tha...

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.

Edmund Spenser

Ah for pittie, wil ranke Winters rage, These bitter blasts neuer ginne tasswage? The keene cold blowes throug my beaten hyde, All as I were through the body gryde. My ragged rontes all shiver and shake, As doen high Towers in an earthquake: They wont...

Edmund Spenser

Sleep after toil, port after stormy seas, Ease after war, death after life does greatly please.

Edmund Spenser

The poets' scrolls will outlive the monuments of stone. Genius survives; all else is claimed by death.

Edmund Spenser

Her angel's face, As the great eye of heaven shined bright, And made a sunshine in the shady place.

Edmund Spenser

It is the mind that maketh good of ill, that maketh wretch or happy, rich or poor.

Edmund Spenser

And all for love, and nothing for reward.

Edmund Spenser

He that strives to touch the starts, oft stumbles at a straw.

Edmund Spenser

Gold all is not that doth golden seem.

Edmund Spenser

Each goodly thing is hardest to begin.

Edmund Spenser

What more felicity can fall to creature, than to enjoy delight with liberty?

Edmund Spenser

Author Bio

  • NameEdmund Spenser
  • DescriptionEnglish poet
  • Born1552
  • DiedJanuary 13, 1599
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionPoet; Writer
  • WorksThe Faerie Queene