"The Shepheardes Calendar: October" by Edmund Spenser

 As a reflection upon the section of "October", I feel that there is a theme that runs throughout the  lines that would pertain to the justification of Edmund Spenser's worth as a poet.

He came from meager and simple means to acquire his education and has since become a renown poet, but was not taken seriously in the literary community of his era. Point in case was Sir Philip Sidney who wrote "The Defense of Poetry" which essentially stated that the English had not had a poet deemed worthy of influential status since Chaucer.

Chaucer, having written pastoral poetry such as "The Nun's Priest's Tale" from "The Canterbury Tales", was the initiating influence for Spenser's "The Shepheardes Calendar". The prod to write was the demoralizing views of the literary circles both in England and abroad.

The form of pastoral poetry in "The Shepheardes Calendar" mimicked Chaucer thus defending the poetry of Spenser's beloved country and  gives evidence of a personal nature weaved between the lines. The character Piers embodies the voice of those who have told Spenser that he needs to write aspiring toward the more affluent society and leave his own roots and style behind. This is in reference to Sidney's view that English poets of the then present era were "bastard poets" and "poet-apes,". Line 40 of "The Shepheardes Calendar: October" says, "Turn thee to those, that weld the awful crown." This is generally interpreted to mean that the character Cuddie is directed to turn from "...the rural routes to thee doe cleave". (Line 26)

Cuddie's stance is reflected well in lines 13-15 , "The dapper ditties, that I won't devise, To feede youthes fancie, and the flocking fry, Delighten much: what I bett for thy?" This could be interpreted to mean that writing to please the court and others is a futile exercise that would not honor the voice of the poet himself, thus producing a piece that is contrived expressly for the literal critics and not faithful to the process of creativity and muse as an influence for art.