Spenserian stanza

American  

noun

1. 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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Spenserian stanza British  

noun

1. 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

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Etymology

Origin of Spenserian stanza

First recorded in 1810–20

Example Sentences

In Childe Harold, too, the writer is carried through his Spenserian stanza with the unweariness and equable fullness of accomplished eloquence; opening, illustrating, and heightening one idea, before he passes on to another.

From English Critical Essays Nineteenth Century by Jones, Edmund David

Queen Mab, 329; Sensitive Plant, 69*; sonnets of, 282; To a Skylark, 34*; use of Spenserian stanza, 106; view of verse-form in poetry, 422 f.

From English Verse Specimens Illustrating its Principles and History by Alden, Raymond MacDonald

Childe Harold and other important poems are composed in the Spenserian stanza.

From A Handbook of the English Language by Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)

This is still far below the Spenserian stanza, and the colour is inferior to that of Giles.

From A History of Elizabethan Literature by Saintsbury, George

Spenserian stanza, 102-106; stanzas influenced by, 107 f.

From English Verse Specimens Illustrating its Principles and History by Alden, Raymond MacDonald