Metaphor and Belief in The Faerie Queene

Rufus Wood contextualizes his study of The Faerie Queene through an initial discussion of attitudes towards metaphor expressed in Elizabethan poetry. He reveals how Elizabethan writers voice a commitment to metaphor as a means of discovering and exploring their world and shows how the concept of a metaphoric principle of structure underlying Elizabethan poetics generates an exciting interpretation of The Faerie Queene. The debate which emerges concerning the use and abuse of metaphor in allegorical poetry provides a valuable contribution to the field of Spenser studies in particular and Renaissance literature in general.