As characteristic of Spenser, I would call your particular attention in the first place to the indescribable sweetness and fluent projection of his verse, very clearly distinguishable from the deeper and more inwoven harmonies of Shakspeare and Milton. This stanza is a good instance of what I mean:-- Yet she, most faithfull ladie, all this while Forsaken, wofull, solitarie mayd, Far from all peoples preace, as in exile, In wildernesse and wastfull deserts strayd To seeke her knight; who, subtily betrayd Through that late vision which th' enchaunter wrought, Had her abandond; she, of nought affrayd, Through woods and wastnes wide him daily sought, Yet wished tydinges none of him unto her brought. F. Qu. B. I. c. 3. st. 3. 2. Combined with this sweetness and fluency, the scientific construction of the metre of the 'Faery Queene' is very noticeable. One of Spenser's arts is that of alliteration, and he uses it with great effect in doubling the impression of an image:-- In _w_ildernesse and _w_astful deserts,-- Through _w_oods and _w_astnes _w_ilde,-- They passe the bitter _w_aves of Acheron, Where many soules sit _w_ailing _w_oefully, And come to _fi_ery _fl_ood of _Ph_legeton, Whereas the damned ghosts in torments _f_ry, And with _sh_arp _sh_rilling _sh_rieks doth bootlesse cry,--&c. He is particularly given to an alternate alliteration, which is, perhaps, when well used, a great secret in melody:-- A _r_amping lyon _r_ushed suddenly,-- And _s_ad to _s_ee her _s_orrowful constraint,-- And on the grasse her _d_aintie _l_imbes _d_id _l_ay,--&c. You cannot read a page of the Faery Queene, if you read for that purpose, without perceiving the intentional alliterativeness of the words; and yet so skilfully is this managed, that it never strikes any unwarned ear as artificial, or other than the result of the necessary movement of the verse. 3. Spenser displays great skill in harmonizing his descriptions of external nature and actual incidents with the allegorical character and epic activity of the poem. Take these two beautiful passages as illustrations of what I mean:-- By this the northerne wagoner had set His sevenfol teme behind the stedfast starre That was in ocean waves yet never wet, But firme is fixt, and sendeth light from farre To all that in the wide deepe wandring arre; And chearefull chaunticlere with his note shrill Had warned once, that Phoebus' fiery carre In hast was climbing up the easterne hill, Full envious that Night so long his roome did fill; _When_ those accursed messengers of hell, That feigning dreame, and that faire-forged spright Came, &c. B. I. c. 2. st. 1. ...