What pictorial quality do you find in The Faerie Queene?

 

What pictorial quality do you find in The Faerie Queene? 

Introduction: Fairy Queen is famous epic of Edmund Spenser.  In the epic, the Epic poet craftily presents The Renaissance and Reformation elements. Though the use of the elements, Edmund Spenser  presents the different type of imagery  what made him a pictorial artist.  Epic poet Edmund Spencer  has presented his poem "Fairy Queen" through different kinds of imagery quality portending him as pictorial artist.

Pictorial elements in the poem 'Fairy  Queen."

Pictorial elements in literature is one of the iconographic presentation in literature writing and Edmund Spencer has adopted pictorial quality in his poem "The Fairy Queen" with the shake of :-

            (i) Visual imagery, 

           (II)  Tactile imagery

and.   (III)  audatory imagery

( I) Visual imagery :  

Edmund Spenser has portended his visual imagery in the poem "The Fairy Queen" through the use of :-

       ( a)  Mood of diligent

       ( b)  Romantic visionary 

        (c)   Actual existence

        (d)   Manifold details

         (e)   Impressive poetic language 

         ( f)   Presenting abstract into concrete 

 Mood of diligent :

     Edmund Spenser begins his epic with the adventures of the Knight of the Red Cross, who was deputéd by the Fairy Queen to relieve the distress of Lady Una, whose parents dwelt in perpetual dread of a fierce Dragon that had laid waste their whole kingdom and threatened them with death and destruction. The Knight of the Red Cross accompanied by Lady Una, proceeded his journey to accomplish the task entrusted to him. As he was going through a wood, he found himself before a cave. This was the cave of monster Error and there took a horrible fight between Red cross Knight and monster error protending a zest of diligent mode to us.

Romantic visionary  : 

     

War is the theme of epic and love is the theme of Love poems. They were the main themes of romances of Spenser's time, Spenser added religion to it. In this Canto, the poet treated the themes of Love, war, and religion romantically.

The purity of Una's Love charms the reader. The intrigues of Archimago in the guise of religion, though hated but undoubtedly exposes a romantic visionary.

Actual existence

   Spenser shows himself at his best when freed from the need of describing a scene or object in actual existence. He gives free rein to his imagination when dealing with the objects of his own creation. On

such occasions, he seems to experience a peculiar joy as he bathes his fanciful creations in the light and colour and shade of his own choice.

Manifold details :

Spenser's word-pictures are usually elaborate and developed at full length with every minute detail, worked to its widest span. He is an artist who knows where he has to restrain his verse and content

himself by touching upon a significant detail or two leaving the maxtfold details of the picture to the imagination of his reader.

 Impressive poetic language :

     Spenser has painted the beauty of nature. He has given vivid pictures of bęasts and giapts, but when he comes to delineate ugliness or prvoking disgust or dread by representing horror in its most impressive

aspect, he seems to put forth all the power of his poetic language. The portrait of Archimago is presented in such a way that apparently he

seems simple but full of treacherous  guile, knitting, the snare of his villainous mischief, while professing holiness and pretty.

Presenting abstract into concrete:

   Spenser is skilled in presenting the abstract into concrete forms. In image making power,

his superiority to his contemporary poets is one of degree, resulting  a finer sensibility and a wider range of appeal which have strengthened his position as the poet's poet. In poem "The fairy queen " also portends many abstract image into concrete.

(II)  Tactile imagery:- 

           Tactile imagery reaches out to our sense of touch. 

   The fight between the Knight and the monster proved to be the most fierce one. At one point in the course of his fighting the Knight found himself in the tight grip of the monster's huge tail. At this time

Lady Una shouted to the Knight to show his bravery She urged him to have faith in himself and in Jesus Christ and to show his bravery.  Fighting with monster error and fall in tight grip of monster's huge tail exposes a sense of touch to the audience which is regarded as tactile imagery in the poem.

     The intrigues of Archimago in the guise of religion,

though hated but undoubtedly exposes a sense of touch to us.

(III)  audatory imagery:-

  Audatory imagery exposes us to the sense of hearing.  

In poetic description, sound imagery is the natural accompaniment of word painting. The Faerie Queene is peopled with noise and

sound. So, Spenser introduces vocal and instrumental music in his imagery and this was the demand of the age.

Reference - Study guide, Lecture series, MacEwan university-Canada, and text book.

This note is prepared by MD. Nafiz karim.( Founder of Writers360 Blog)