Spenserian sonnet

Spenserian sonnet
A variant on the English form is the Spenserian sonnet is a variant form of the English or Shakespearean sonnet. It is named after the English poet Edmund Spenser (c.1552–1599).

Form
Like the standard English sonnet, the Spenserian sonnet consists of 14 lines of Iambic pentameter. It is distinguieshed by it interlockig rhyme scheme, which is, abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee.

In a Spenserian sonnet there does not appear to be a requirement that the initial octave sets up a problem that the closing sestet "answers", as is the case with a Petrarchan sonnet. Instead, the form is treated as three quatrains connected by the interlocking rhyme scheme and followed by a couplet. The linked rhymes of his quatrains suggest the linked rhymes of such Italian forms as terza rima. This example is taken from Amoretti.



''Happy ye leaves! whenas those lily hands'' Happy ye leaves! whenas those lily hands, (a) Which hold my life in their dead doing might, (b) Shall handle you, and hold in love's soft hands, (a) Like captives trembling at the victor's sight. (b) And happy lines on which, with starry light, (b) Those lamping eyes will deign sometimes to look,(c) And read the sorrows of my dying sprite, (b) Written with tears in heart's close bleeding book. (c) And happy rhymes! bathed in the sacred brook (c) Of Helicon, whence she derived is, (d) When ye behold that angel's blessed look, (c) My soul's long lacked food, my heaven's bliss. (d) Leaves, lines, and rhymes seek her to please alone, (e) Whom if ye please, I care for other none. (e) &ndash Edmund Spenser