Eighty-nine sonnets written in the course of Spenser’s courtship of Elizabeth Boyle.
Love, lift me up upon thy golden wings
From this base world unto thy heaven’s height,
Where I may see those admirable things
Which there thou workest by thy sovereign might,
Far above feeble reach of earthly sight,
That I thereof an heavenly hymn may sing
Unto the God of Love, high heaven’s king.
About the book
A culture-shaping power
The power of poetry is a culture-shaping power. Its symbolic language cultivates in us the ability to read the world, and ourselves, rightly, to understand that we live in a symbolic world rich with allusion and meaning. Nowhere is this truth more clearly seen than in the poetry of love and marriage. Poets of the past beheld the beauty of marital love and saw through it to the love of Christ for His bride. They recognized its mysterious and sacramental nature, that marriage itself was a visible manifestation of an invisible reality.
Edmund Spenser, one of the greatest poets of the Elizabethan age, composed a number of love poems in which he identified and celebrated this deeper significance. With an introduction by Dr. Joe Carlson explaining the liturgical nature of Spenser’s Amoretti, Epithalamion, Four Hymns, and Prothalamion, this volume presents the reader with some of the greatest love poetry ever written, poetry that faithfully represents the nature and fount of all human love.
The poems
From courtship to the wedding day
The ode for his own wedding, keeping the hours of the day from dawn to night. One of its lines gives this book its title: “Ring ye the bells, ye young men of the town.”
Two hymns to earthly love and beauty, answered by two to heavenly love and heavenly beauty.
A “spousal verse” for a double betrothal, with its refrain: “Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.”
The release evening · Feb 23, 2026 · 1 h 35 minRing Ye The Bells: Poems of Love and Marriage
A lecture on the poems of love and marriage by Edmund Spenser, with a short lecture by Joe Carlson, followed by a panel discussion with Joe Carlson, Joffre Swait, and Jason Farley.
The introduction
Dr. Joe Carlson
Joe Carlson holds a BA in Liberal Arts and Culture from New Saint Andrews College, and an MA in Humanities and a PhD in Literature from the University of Dallas. In different lifetimes he has co-pastored a church, co-founded a campus ministry, published (micro) epic poetry, and managed a chain of coffee shops. Currently, he is a Senior Editor with Roman Roads Press and a Literature professor at New Saint Andrews College. He lives in Moscow, Idaho, with his wife and son.
Publishing information
- Author
- Edmund Spenser
- Editor
- Joe Carlson
- Introduction
- Joe Carlson
- Format
- Paperback, 5.5 × 8.5 in, perfect bound · 168 pages
- Copyright
- Roman Roads Press, 2026
- ISBN
- 978-1-963505-24-5
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