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E.E. Cummings has a poetic sequence entitled "Epithalamion," which seems thoroughly engaged with Spenser:

 

 

I'm not sure, though, if it pre- or post-dates 1940.

 

And for Eclogues, I can't recall if anyone's yet mentioned Anthony Hecht's "Eclogue of the Shepherd and the Townie." Spenser seems part of the mix here somehow, though the eclogue tradition is a long one and Hecht knows his classics.

 

 

 

(By the way, and entirely off-topic, in hunting up the Hecht poem on the website of the Poetry Foundation, I came across an exchange between Alicia Ostriker and Peter O'Leary on the Psalms. Since I know I'm not the only Psalms-obsessed person on this list -- Anne! -- I pass on the link: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/journal/feature.html?id=182864.)

 

Hannibal

 

On 2/4/09, [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Penny et al. --

 

Ashbery's dialogue between Cuddie and Colin is titled "Eclogue."  The title poem in Some Trees, and indeed the whole collection, might be situated in Spenser's Wandring Wood.

 

Jon Quitslund 

-------------- Original message from Kenneth Gross <[log in to unmask]>: --------------


> Penny -- no correspondence with Ashbery. Indeed, looking over the
> list, it's clear that almost all of the letters are from the mid/late
> fifties, some few in the 60s. The letters from 1984 are apparently
> mostly responses giving Blissett permission to publish the much
> earlier correspondence at some point. The youngest poet on the list
> seems to be Karl Shapiro.
>
> But I'm sure Ashbery too is steeped in Spenser.
>
> Ken
>

> On Wed, Feb 4, 2009 at 8:24 AM, Penny M wrote:
> > That is a fantastic link, Kenneth, thank you. It doesn't have John Ashbery
> > in: I wonder why? There's a Colin/ Cuddie poem in Some Trees, but I can't
> > remember the title.
> > Penny.
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Sidney-Spenser Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> > On Behalf Of Kenneth Gross
> > Sent: 04 February 2009 13:13
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: More on literary references
> >
> > Yet once more...
> >
> > I recalled that Gordon Teskey once told me his teacher William
> > Blissett had long ago been collecting materials about Spenser and
> > modern poets. He wrote to English, Canadian, and American poets
> > asking about Spenser's influence on their works. Checking online, I
> > found a listing for a special collection at the University of Toronto
> > Library, the "Blissett Collection," which contains all of the
> > correspondence with poets between1953 and 1984 (including letters from
> > Louise Bogan, Wallace Stevens, Ezra Pound, Robert Graves, and even
> > John Masefield.) Here's a link to the catalog entry, with the names
> > of the poets he wrote to:
> >
> > http://library.utoronto.ca/fisher/collections/findaids/blissett89.pdf
> >
> > I remember corresponding with Blissett myself a number of years ago,
> > at a point when he had more or less given up the thought of writing
> > this material up.
> >
> > And I'm SURE that Merrill's Changing Light at Sandover has some
> > Spenser woven into it.
> >
> > Ken
> >