Edmund Spenser
/ˌedmənd ˈspensə(r)/
/ˌedmənd ˈspensər/
- (c. 1552-99) an English poet. His first important work was The Shepheardes Calendar (1579), a group of twelve poems about the countryside, one for each month of the year. He is best known for his long poem The Faerie Queene. He invented a new form of verse for this poem, which became known as the Spenserian stanza and was used by many later poets. Several important English poets were strongly influenced by Spenser, especially Milton and Keats.