A review by maenad_wordsmith
The Faerie Queene, Book Two by Edmund Spenser

Guyon (Temperance) and his Palmer (who tells Guyon what temperance is) are often boring, but the House of Temperance and Prince Arthur are stunning and many of the temptations are beautiful. I love Spenser's interjections--he invokes and praises Queen Elizabeth ("To decke my song withall, I would assay / Thy name, O Soveraine Queene, to blazon farre away") and seems to admit Guyon is a bit dull ("here I a while must stay / to see a cruell fight doen by the Prince this day" he says before devoting Canto 11 to Arthur). One of my favorite stanzas is about Arthur's quest for Gloriana, which brings him to each of Spenser's books:

Certes (then said the Prince) I God avow,
That sith I armes and knighthood first did plight,
My whole desire hath beene, and yet is now,
To serve that Queene with all my power and might.
Now hath the Sunne with his lamp-burning light,
Walkt round about the world, and I no less,
Sith of that Goddess I have sought the sight,
Yet no where can her find; such happiness
Heaven doth to me envy, and fortune favour lesse.