This is a debatable one. Atkins plumps for Spenser as "the first writer in English to be consciously erotic." The "Faerie Queen" is represented as a "mine of sensuality." A "Spectator" article is cited to indicate the sexual significance of the Spenser imagery -"You do not need any psychoanalytic training to see here a rather grisly amalgam of the male and female sexual organs," after quoting the description of the lustful monster in Book IV, Canto VII. Now it's Atkins again - Spenser reckoned to be preaching chastity and religion, but he "allowed his imagination to luxuriate in obscenities which would have impressed both Shakespeare and Donne."