The Shepheardes Calender

The Shepheardes Calender, series of poems by Edmund Spenser, published in 1579 and considered to mark the beginning of the English Renaissance in literature.

Following the example of Virgil and others, Spenser began his career with a group of eclogues (short poems usually cast as pastoral dialogues), in which various characters, in the guise of innocent and simple shepherds, discuss life and love, formulating weighty—and often satirical—opinions on questions of the day. The Calender consists of 12 eclogues, one for each month, employing a variety of metres and including archaic vocabulary Spenser borrowed from earlier poetry (particularly that of Geoffrey Chaucer). The first and last of the eclogues, each presenting a “complaint” by the shepherd boy Colin Clout (Spenser), frame the remaining 10 rustic dialogues. The latter deploy the full complement of pastoral poetic conventions, including the singing contest, the encomium (a panegyric to Elisa [Elizabeth I]), the hymn to Pan, and the dirge.