Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- Since it's pretty clear that Spenser is thinking about specific issues that occur during his own historical time and place (Elizabethan England) in The Faerie Queene, why in the world does he set the poem in an imaginary land filled with outdated medieval figures like knights and damsels-in-distress? Would it have made more sense to set the poem in his own time period? Why or why not?
- Spenser is often referred to as a "poet's poet." Based on what you know or have read about the poem, why might this label be an accurate way to describe his poetry? What do you think the label "poet's poet" even means?
- Allegory is a strategy Spenser famously employs in writing this poem. Why do you think Spenser chose this challenging, and sometimes confusing, approach to tell his story? What does allegory add to this poem and how is reading it different from reading non-allegorical poems or stories?
- One of the challenges of reading and interpreting The Faerie Queene is its lack of overall narrative unification: each book tends to be primarily a stand-alone narrative with only tangential connections to the books that surround it. Why might Spenser do this? Can you think of any benefits of writing a story this way? Can you challenge yourself to find things that do unify the poem as a whole?
- The Faerie Queene is generally understood to be unfinished: there were supposed to be 6 more books to follow (wowza!). Based on what you know about the books we have, imagine what those books might have been like, what they would have described, and where they would have taken us.