Spenserian
Elizabethan poet's style
Spenserian refers to the style or forms associated with the English poet Edmund Spenser (1552–1599).
The Spenserian stanza, invented for *The Faerie Queene*, has nine lines with a distinctive rhyme scheme (ababbcbcc), the final line being an alexandrine.
The Spenserian sonnet follows a different rhyme pattern than Petrarchan or Shakespearean forms.
More broadly, Spenserian suggests elaborate allegory, archaic diction, and lush imagery characteristic of Spenser's verse.
Symbolic tale with deeper meaning
- pastoralOf countryside or clergy care
- chivalryKnightly code of honor
- ArthurianOf Camelot's mythology
- Elizabeth IFinal Tudor sovereign
Elaborately decorated
- embellishedDecorated or exaggerated
- elaborateComplex and detailed
- allegorySymbolic tale with deeper meaning
- personificationAttributing humanity to non-humans
neologism · medieval romance · chivalric · emblematic · didactic · aureate · flowery · antiquarian
Sixteenth-century English ruling family
- RenaissanceEuropean cultural reawakening
- courtierRoyal household attendant
- SidneyPersonal or place name
- ShakespeareElizabethan dramatist and poet
Marlowe · patronage · humanism · Reformation · Virgin Queen · sonneteer · Arcadia · Leicester
Eight-note interval
- iambic pentameterUnstressed-stressed pattern, five feet
- rhyme schemeSound-matching arrangement in poetry
- ByronTitled Romantic versifier
- ShelleyEnglish Romantic surname
Keats · Thomson · enjambment
Sonnet's defining measure
- English sonnetFourteen lines, ABAB pattern
- voltaRepeated section's alternate ending
- love poetryPoems expressing romantic affection
- courtlyRefined and dignified
allegory
Symbolic tale with deeper meaning
ornate
Elaborately decorated
- embellishedDecorated or exaggerated
- elaborateComplex and detailed
- allegorySymbolic tale with deeper meaning
personification · neologism · medieval romance · chivalric · emblematic · didactic · aureate · flowery · antiquarian · thee
Tudor
Sixteenth-century English ruling family
- RenaissanceEuropean cultural reawakening
- courtierRoyal household attendant
- SidneyPersonal or place name
Shakespeare · Marlowe · patronage · humanism · Reformation · Virgin Queen · sonneteer · Arcadia · Leicester · Raleigh
octave
Eight-note interval
- iambic pentameterUnstressed-stressed pattern, five feet
- rhyme schemeSound-matching arrangement in poetry
- ByronTitled Romantic versifier
Shelley · Keats · Thomson · enjambment
fourteen lines
Sonnet's defining measure
- English sonnetFourteen lines, ABAB pattern
- voltaRepeated section's alternate ending
- love poetryPoems expressing romantic affection
- literary periodsRenaissance, medieval, Victorian, modern, contemporary
- sonnetssonnet, Shakespearean sonnets, Petrarchan sonnet, Shakespearean sonnet, English sonnet
- poetrypoem, poems, poetry, verse, verses
- EponymsDarwinian, Alzheimer's disease, Freudian slip, cardigan, Parkinson's disease
- poetry formshaiku, sonnet, sonnets, tanka, limerick
- Rhymeperfect rhyme, end rhyme, exact rhyme, slant rhyme, half rhyme
Spenserianmodernist
Advocate of experimental forms
minimalist · colloquial · conversational · Hemingwayesque · imagist
Spenserianfree verse
Poetry without fixed structure
unrhymed · prose poetry · formless · unmetered · irregular