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

It is the Alexandrine which Mr. Browning has imitated in Fifine, not that of Drayton, or of the various practitioners of the Spenserian stanza from Spenser himself downwards.

From A History of Elizabethan Literature by Saintsbury, George

The Spenserian stanza, invented by Edmund Spenser and employed by him in the "Faerie Queene," is a difficult but effective form of poetry.

From Elementary Guide to Literary Criticism by Painter, F. V. N. (Franklin Verzelius Newton)

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)

Lowell: Commemoration Ode, 317*; on Gray's Progress of Poesy, 307; on Spenserian stanza, 103.

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

For instances of this, see the section on the Spenserian stanza, pp. 102-108, above, and Corson's chapters on the Spenserian stanza and its influence, in his Primer of English Verse.

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