The names Edmund Spenser and John Donne are typically associated with
different ages in English poetry, the former with the sixteenth century
and the Elizabethan Golden Age, the latter with the 'metaphysical' poets
of the seventeenth century. This collection of essays, part of The
Manchester Spenser series, brings together leading Spenser and Donne
scholars to challenge this dichotomous view and to engage critically
with both poets, not only at the sites of direct allusion, imitation, or
parody, but also in terms of common preoccupations and continuities of
thought, informed by the literary and historical contexts of the
politically and intellectually turbulent turn of the century.
Juxtaposing these two poets, so apparently unlike one another, for
comparison rather than contrast changes our understanding of each poet
individually and moves towards a more holistic, relational view of their
poetics.