spenserian stanza
Noun: 1. A specific poetic form: A fixed stanza structure consisting of nine iambic lines. The first eight lines are in iambic pentameter (five metrical feet per line), and the ninth line is an alexandrine (a line of iambic hexameter, containing six metrical feet). Its rhyme scheme is ababbcbcc.
The Spenserian stanza is used as a formal, self-contained unit in long narrative or epic poetry. It creates a sense of continuity and interlocking structure due to its linked rhyme scheme. * Edmund Spenser invented the Spenserian stanza for his epic poem The Faerie Queene. * The complexity of the Spenserian stanza, with its final alexandrine, allows for a stately and conclusive summary of the preceding eight lines. * Writing in Spenserian stanza requires careful attention to both meter and intricate rhyme.
- As a technical term in literary analysis: The term is used to describe and analyze the formal structure of poems that employ this pattern, distinguishing it from other stanzas like ottava rima or rhyme royal.
- The poet's adoption of the Spenserian stanza pays direct homage to the Romantic era's fascination with medieval and Renaissance forms.
- Historical/Literary Context: It is often discussed in relation to its influence on later poets, particularly those of the Romantic period.
- Keats's "The Eve of St. Agnes" and Shelley's "Adonais" are famous examples of the Spenserian stanza's revival in the 19th century.
- Stanza (n): A grouped set of lines within a poem, often with a recurring pattern of meter and rhyme.
- Iambic pentameter (n): A metrical line of five iambs (an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable).
- Alexandrine (n): A line of verse with six iambic feet (iambic hexameter).
- Ottava rima (n): An eight-line stanza with the rhyme scheme .
- Rhyme royal (n): A seven-line stanza in iambic pentameter with the rhyme scheme .
- Poetic form
- Stanzaic form
- None directly associated. The term "Spenserian stanza" is itself a specific technical idiom within poetics.
- a stanza with eight lines of iambic pentameter and a concluding Alexandrine with the rhyme pattern abab bcbc c
- the Spenserian stanza was introduced by Edmund Spenser in The Faerie Queene