Anacreontic poems by E. Spenser

The article is devoted to the analysis of Edmund Spenser’s anacreontic poems proving they are by no means an accidental insertion between the two major parts of “Amoretti and Epithalamion” as it has often been asserted before. Nine stanzas separating the sonnet sequence from the long poem form an integral part of the famous lyrical cycle serving as a bridge between them. Grouped into four poems in the posthumous editions, they outline and combine the recurrent motifs of “Amoretti and Epithalamion”, their metaphorical meaning fully consistent with the lyrical plot of the sonnet sequence and preparing the reader for the perception of “Epithalamion”.