The Precarious Poet in Colin Clouts Come Home Againe

This essay argues that the structure of Spenser’s Colin Clouts Come Home Againe is centripetal, radiating out from its central moment of devotion to Rosalind and bounded by two myths of language. The first myth is Bregog, who demonstrates the danger of too little self-declaration; the second myth is Stesichorus, who demonstrates the danger of too much speech. The poet-figure Colin Clout considers and reconsiders how best to speak and his relationship to the poetic word; along with the poet, the reader considers and reconsiders as well.