Question

Colin Clout's Come Home Again

Accepted Answer

Spenserpastoral poemdesigned to recall the major character in the Sheperheards Calender1595dedicated to Raleighit has Colin giving a first hand account of his adventures to his fellow Sheperheardscompliments to Elizabeth (Cynthia) and Raleigh (the Shepherd of the ocean ) laments the death of Sidney (Astrophel)it is ambivalent in its feeling about the court which it alternatively compliments and criticizesone of his most autobiographically allusive poemColin Clouts Come Home Againe (also known as Colin Clouts Come Home Again) is a pastoral poem by the English poet Edmund Spenser and published in 1595. It has been the focus of little critical attention in comparison with the poet's other works such as The Faerie Queene, yet it has been called the "greatest pastoral eclogue in the English language".[1] In a tradition going back to Petrarch, the pastoral eclogue contains a dialogue between shepherds with a narrative or song as an inset, and which also can conceal allegories of a political or ecclesiastical nature.[1]Colin Clouts Come Home Againe is an allegorical pastoral based on the subject of Spenser's visit to London in 1591 and is written as a lightly veiled account of the trip. He wrote it after his return home to Ireland later that year. He dedicated the poem to Sir Walter Raleigh in partial payment for the "infinite debt" Spenser felt he owed him.[2] (Sir Walter Raleigh had visited him prior to his London trip, convincing him to go.) Spenser also sent Raleigh several versions of the poem between 1591 and 1595 when the poem was published.[2] In the poem, Colin Clout gives a description of the London visit; the poem is Spenser's most autobiographical and identifies a number of anonymous poets, the real life identities of whom have been the grist of speculation over time.[3]

Poem Colin Home Pastoral Raleigh Spenser Clouts London