School Days (novel) - Literary and Other Allusions

Literary and Other Allusions

Spenser calls himself a "poetic devil," but he does not always quote correctly or verbatim. In School Days, references to various works of literature and popular culture are made. This is an incomplete list of quotations:

  • John Keats, from "Ode on a Grecian Urn" ("Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard / Are sweeter")
  • Richard Lovelace, from "To Lucasta, Going to the Wars" ("I could not love thee, dear, so much, / Lov'd I not Honour more")
  • Wallace Stevens, from "The Emperor of Ice-Cream" ("Let be be finale of seem")
  • Alfred, Lord Tennyson, from "Sir Galahad" ("My strength is as the strength of ten, / Because my heart is pure")
  • the Rin Tin Tin stories
  • General Douglas MacArthur's "I shall return"
  • Sigmund Freud's seminal book, Civilization and Its Discontents.

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