"Edmund Spenser (1559-99) has earned the title 'the poet’s poet' because of the high poetry of his epic and because so many great poets, including Milton, Dryden, Tennyson, and Keats, cut their poetic teeth on The Faerie Queene.
The hero of Book II is Sir Guyon, the knight of Temperance. But do not let that throw you. This is not a poem about teetotalism. As C.S. Lewis puts it, The Faerie Queene'demands of us a child’s love of marvels and dread of bogies, a boy’s thirst for adventures, a young man’s passions for physical beauty.'
Following in the wake of Roy Maynard’s Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves, Toby Sumpter’s notes are insightful and humorous—making this great Christian epic poem accessible for modern readers. The Elfin Knight makes an excellent choice as a homeschool or classroom text."
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