The English Renaissance poet Edmund Spenser wrote his greatest work, the epic called The Faerie Queene, in a stanza form since named for him. The nine-line stanza rhymes ababbcbcC, where the capital “C” means the last verse is an Alexandrine: it has six feet instead of five, which is to say, it’s a hexameter instead of pentameter.
This complex form can be difficult to handle: it demands that only three words account for nine lines’ worth of rhymes, and the “b” word needs four rhymes. An example from Spenser himself:
The form was imitated in the eighteenth century, but was modified to make it easier to write and, to eighteenth-century readers, at least, easier to read. The original form made something of a comeback in the Romantic period.Forth came that auncient Lord and aged Queene,
Arayd in antique robes downe to the ground,
And sad habiliments right well beseene;
A noble crew about them waited round
Of sage and sober Peres, all gravely gownd;
Whom farre before did march a goodly band
Of tall young men, all hable armes to sownd,
But now they laurell braunches bore in hand;
Glad signe of victorie and peace in all their land.— The Faerie Queene, I.xii.5.
Note: This guide is still in the early stages of development.
Three question marks mean I have to write more on the subject. Bear with me.