Please allow me to speak of times past,
When I entered into treacherous land
And when I never thought that I could last.
But lo and behold, here I still stand
Along with my faithful comrades, my band,
Ready and willing to conquer the rest,
To do whatever is in demand.
A pledge to you, I will do my best,
A promise shown: a hand across my breast.
I beg you to allow me to explain
I feel like I have been given a charge
One that drives me insane and hurts my brain.
The task is devious and very large
I often have some choice words to discharge
But I will stay focused and battle through!
That is what we do when ordered by Sarge!
A challenge for me was long overdue.
I chose this task and I will stay true.
Stanza 1
1-3 My attempt to be dramatic and Spenser like. I am of course speaking of when I began the class at the beginning of the semester. Entering into “treacherous land” of course is walking into the class and beginning to read The Faerie Queene. When I began to read the The Faerie Queene, I did not think that I was going to make it through this class but as you begin to read you pick up certain things and then you do not even think about what you are reading specifically. You begin to see past the actual words and you just see what they mean. Since Spenser wrote in his own version of Old English, the translation for his writing is into English used today: the word may look similar to a modern day English word and probably is that word. 4 My second attempt to be like Spenser, “Lo and behold”. But I end the line with my declaration of still being in the class and “standing my ground” so to speak. I will be in the class until the end and I was just basically stating that. 5-6 My comrades, my band meaning my classmates. We have all delved into this class as a class, a group. We are pushing through until the finish and the discussions in class are often in depth and just trying to clarify certain aspects and context. 8-9 I tried to be knightly in these lines. Knights make a pledge to their leader to take on a task and complete it. The Faerie Queene contains six books which all talk of knights’ tales: The Red Cross Knight, Sir Guyon, and Arthur to name a few knights. “The braue aduentures of this faery knight” (Spenser 2.Proem.5.7). I made my pledge (my vow) to finish my task (to continue reading through to the end of the class) to the Queen (the Professor).
Stanza 2
1 Here is my humbling line. Spenser had a few such as, “the lowly poet”. 2 charge: By entering this class I have been “charged” with the task of reading Edmund Spenser and attempting to understand his language. 3 This line is a big reference specifically to the reading. I have never encountered something so annoying, something that makes you think so much, mainly because of the language and not so much because of the content. 5 I will admit that occasionally when I am reading some profane words may be floating around in my head or may even be released. 6 battle: I refer back to my reference of a knight. I will “battle” through the task of reading this story. “But now so wise and wary was the knight” (Spenser 2.1.4.6). 7 Sarge: A reference to a military Sergeant. To me, a more modern version of a knight would or could be a soldier. I will admit though, that I needed a rhyme there and I used the shortened version of Sergeant in “Sarge” to fit the scheme. 8-9 While I was writing these stanzas I began to ponder what the last thing I read was that was this challenging and I honestly could not think of anything this difficult but I am pretty sure that I have had other readings that came close.
