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.

---

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

---

Etymology

Origin of Spenserian stanza

First recorded in 1810–20

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Spenserian stanza

This is the ten-line "Chatterton stanza," a variant of the Spenserian stanza, devised by Chatterton, which he claimed ante-dated Spenser by one or two centuries.

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

This last is a beautiful translation in the Spenserian stanza, of which a second edition appeared in 1868, in two octavo volumes.

From The Book-Hunter at Home by Allan, P. B. M.

He chose a curious and rather infelicitous variation on the Spenserian stanza ababbccc, keeping the Alexandrine but missing the seventh line, with a lyrical interlude here and there.

From A History of Elizabethan Literature by Saintsbury, George

This order of rimes reminds us of that in the Spenserian stanza, and must have been devised by Spenser at about the same time.

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

Referring to the Spenserian stanza which is composed of nine lines, eight of which are iambic pentameters, and the ninth a hexameter or Alexandrine.

From Six Centuries of English Poetry Tennyson to Chaucer by Baldwin, James