The Faerie Queene is an incomplete English
epic poem by
Edmund Spenser. The first half was published in 1590, and a second installment was published in 1596.
The Faerie Queene is notable for its form: it is one of the longest poems in the English language and the origin of a verse form that came to be known as
Spenserian stanza. It is an
allegorical work, and can be read (as Spenser presumably intended) on several levels of allegory, including as praise of Queen
Elizabeth I. In a completely allegorical context, the poem follows several knights in an examination of several virtues. In Spenser's "Letter of the Authors," he states that the entire epic poem is "cloudily enwrapped in allegorical devices," and that the aim of publishing
The Faerie Queene was to “fashion a gentleman or noble person in virtuous and gentle discipline.”