Spenserian stanza

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noun

the stanza used by Spenser in his Faerie Queene and employed since by other poets, consisting of eight iambic pentameter lines and a final Alexandrine, with a rhyme scheme of ababbcbcc.

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Origin of Spenserian stanza

First recorded in 1810–20

Words nearby Spenserian stanza

Spener, Spengler, Spenser, Spenserian, Spenserian sonnet, Spenserian stanza, Spens' syndrome, spent, Spenta Amesha, Spenta Mainyu, spent gnat

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use Spenserian stanza in a sentence

Finally, just before the tenth stanza, a crestfallen Alvarado whispered that he was done.
Boxers, Be Brave and Quit Before Your Brain Turns to Mush|Gordon Marino|October 25, 2013|DAILY BEAST
And writers seem to get it a lot, the relationship between words and page and phrase and paragraph, or stanza.
The Writer and the Potter: Edmund De Waal on his New York Debut|Iain Millar|September 12, 2013|DAILY BEAST
But on January 28, on a typed draft, the final stanza is crossed out and replaced, with no hope for spring remaining.
Sylvia Plath’s Darkest Sea: What an Unveiled Draft Poem Reveals|Olivia Cole|May 3, 2013|DAILY BEAST
The final stanza was the most fitting tribute I could imagine for my father.
The Girl I Will Miss at Commencement|Robert Bookman|May 22, 2009|DAILY BEAST

E-book use on the iPhone exploded, with over a million downloads of the Stanza application alone.
Don't Write Off Books|Peter Osnos|April 7, 2009|DAILY BEAST
No further hints need be offered except perhaps in regard to the last ten lines of the last stanza.
Assimilative Memory|Marcus Dwight Larrowe (AKA Prof. A. Loisette)
In order to shew the riming more clearly, I have 'set back' the 3rd, 6th, and 7th lines of each stanza.
Chaucer's Works, Volume 1 (of 7) -- Romaunt of the Rose; Minor Poems|Geoffrey Chaucer
Evidently this disclaimer is a pretended one; the preceding stanza and ll.
Chaucer's Works, Volume 1 (of 7) -- Romaunt of the Rose; Minor Poems|Geoffrey Chaucer
This stanza reproduces in the sixth line the last word of the first, and in the seventh the last word of the fourth.
Frdric Mistral|Charles Alfred Downer
Like Mirèio, the poem is divided into twelve cantos, and the form of stanza employed is the same.
Frdric Mistral|Charles Alfred Downer

British Dictionary definitions for Spenserian stanza

Spenserian stanza

noun

prosody the stanza form used by the poet Spenser in his poem The Faerie Queene, consisting of eight lines in iambic pentameter and a concluding Alexandrine, rhyming a b a b b c b c c

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012