Editing Spenserian stanza

{{Short description|Verse form created by Edmund Spenser}}
{{About|the nine-line stanza|the sonnet format|Spenserian sonnet}}
The '''Spenserian stanza''' is a fixed verse form invented by [[Edmund Spenser]] for his [[Epic poetry|epic poem]] ''[[The Faerie Queene]]'' (1590–96). Each [[stanza]] contains nine lines in total: eight lines in [[iambic pentameter]] followed by a single '[[alexandrine]]' line in iambic [[hexameter]]. The [[rhyme scheme]] of these lines is ABABBCBCC.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/art/Spenserian-stanza Spenserian stanza, poetic form at Encyclopaedia Britannica.]</ref><ref>[https://www.poetryfoundation.org/resources/learning/glossary-terms/detail/spenserian-stanza Spenserian stanza at Poetry Foundation.]</ref>

==Example stanza==
This example is the first stanza from Spenser's ''[[The Faerie Queene|Faerie Queene]]''.  The formatting, wherein all lines but the first and last are indented, is the same as in contemporary printed editions.
<blockquote><poem>
Lo I the man, whose Muse whilome did maske,
  As time her taught, in lowly Shepheards weeds,
  Am now enforst a far unfitter taske,
  For trumpets sterne to chaunge mine Oaten reeds,
  And sing of Knights and Ladies gentle deeds;
  Whose prayses having slept in silence long,
  Me, all too meane, the sacred Muse areeds
  To blazon broad emongst her learned throng:
Fierce warres and faithfull loues shall moralize my song.
</poem></blockquote>

==Possible influences==
Spenser's invention may have been influenced by the Italian form [[ottava rima]], which consists of eight lines of iambic pentameter with the rhyme scheme ABABABCC. This form was used by Spenser's Italian role models [[Ludovico Ariosto]] and [[Torquato Tasso]].

Another possible influence is [[rhyme royal]], a traditional medieval form used by [[Geoffrey Chaucer]] and others, which has seven lines of iambic pentameter that rhyme ABABBCC.

The most likely influence, however, is the eight-line ballad stanza with the rhyme scheme ABABBCBC, which Chaucer used in his Monk's Tale.  Spenser would have been familiar with this rhyme scheme and simply added a line to the stanza, forming ABABBCBCC.<ref>''A Spenser Handbook'', by H.S.V. Jones. Published by Appleton-Century-Crofts, INC>, New York 1958. Page 142.</ref>

==Use by others==

Spenser's verse form fell into disuse in the period immediately following his death.  However, it was revived in the nineteenth century by several notable poets, including:
* [[Mary Tighe]] in ''[[Psyche or the Legend of Love]]''
* [[Gerard Manley Hopkins]] in ''[[The Escorial]]'' (1860)
* [[Robert Southey]] in ''[[A Tale of Paraguay]]''
* [[Lord Byron]] in ''[[Childe Harold's Pilgrimage]]''
* [[James Hogg]] in ''[[Mador of the Moor]]''
* [[John Keats]] in ''[[The Eve of St. Agnes]]'' and ''[http://www.john-keats.com/gedichte/imitation_of_spenser.htm Imitation of Spenser]''
* [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]] in ''[[The Revolt of Islam]]'' and ''[[Adonaïs]]''
* [[Walter Scott|Sir Walter Scott]] in ''[[The Vision of Don Roderick]]''.
* [[Robert Burns]] in "[[The Cotter's Saturday Night]]", which shows his ability to use English forms while praising Scotland.
* [[William Wordsworth]] in "The Female Vagrant", included in Wordsworth and Coleridge's ''[[Lyrical Ballads]]''
* [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson]] in ''[[The Lotos-Eaters]]'', in the first part of the poem.
* [[John Clare]] in ''The Harvest Morning''<ref>[http://spenserians.cath.vt.edu/TextRecord.php?textsid=36290 John Clare, The Harvest Morning at spenserians.cath.vt.edu.]</ref> and ''November''
* [[George Washington Moon]] in ''Elijah the Prophet''
* [[John Frederick Rowbotham]] in ''The Epic of London''
* [[John Neihardt]] in ''The Divine Enchantment''
* [[William Cullen Bryant]] in ''The Ages''
* [[Sibella Elizabeth Miles]] in ''The Wanderer of Scandinavia; or, Sweden Delivered''

In Eastern Europe, English stanzaic forms were not at first very popular, these countries being too far from England's literary influence. Neither [[rhyme royal]] nor the Spenserian stanza occurred frequently. English rhyme schemes remained unknown until the early 19th century, when Lord Byron's poems gained enormous popularity. In Poland the Spenserian stanza was used by [[Juliusz Słowacki]] and [[Jan Kasprowicz]].<ref>Wiktor Jarosław Darasz, Mały przewodnik po wierszu polskim, Kraków 2003, pp. 152-153 (in Polish).</ref> In Czech literature [[Jaroslav Vrchlický]] wrote some poems in the Spenserian stanza, among others ''Stvoření světa'' (''The Creation of the World''):
{{Verse translation|
{{lang|cs|Chaos! Chaos! — Kdo postihne ty látky,
jež v bezbarvé tu leží ve směsici,
kde asi plyne základ země matky,
kde lávy proud a skály ku měsíci,
kde prvky světla v ohon vlasatici?
Chaos, chaos... jen tma a tma kol čirá,
obrovské světy ve hlubinách spící,
kde stěžeje, na nichž se země vzpírá,
kde oheň věčný jest, jejž ve svém nitru svírá?}}<ref>{{cite book | first = Jaroslav | last = Vrchlický | authorlink = Jaroslav Vrchlický | title = Duch a svět. Básně Jaroslava Vrchlického [The Spirit and the World. Poems by Jaroslav Vrchlický] | date = 1878 | edition = 3rd | location = Prague | publisher = J. Otta | page = 15 | url = http://kramerius.nkp.cz/kramerius/MShowMonograph.do?id=20820&author=Vrchlick%C3%BD_Jaroslav}}</ref>
|attr1=Lines 1-9|
Chaos! Chaos! Who discerns elements
All cast in hueless compound out of sight?
Where are the pillars of the continents,
The lava flows, alps nearing lunar height,
The sparks that make the comet's tresses bright?
Chaos! Chaos! Darkness in sable dressed,
Titanic worlds, asleep in depths of night —
Where is the axle for the Earth's swift rest?
Where the eternal fire within the planet's breast?}}

==Similar forms==
In the long poem ''[[The Forest Sanctuary]]'',<ref>Text available [http://digital.lib.ucdavis.edu/projects/bwrp/Works/HemaFFores.htm#p1 online].</ref> [[Felicia Hemans]] employs a similar nine-line stanza, rhyming ABABCCBDD, with the first eight lines in iambic pentameter and the ninth an alexandrine.

==References==
{{reflist|35em}}

==Bibliography==
* Morton, Edward Payson. "The Spenserian Stanza before 1700". ''Modern Philology'', Volume 4, No. 4, April 1907. pp.&nbsp;639–654

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spenserian Stanza}}
[[Category:Stanzaic form]]
[[Category:Epic poetry]]
[[Category:Edmund Spenser]]