Part 3 — CHAPTER VII THE SPENSERIAN STANZA AND FORMS DERIVED FROM IT
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§ 297. One of the most important Modern English stanzas is the Spenserian, so called after its inventor. This stanza, like the forms discussed in the last chapter, but in a still greater degree, is based on an older type. For it is not, as is sometimes said, derived from the Italian ottava rima (cf. § 292), but, as was pointed out by Guest (ii. 389), from a Middle English eight-lined popular stanza of five-foot verses with rhymes on the formula a b a b b c b c, which was modelled in its turn on a well-known Old French ballade-stanza (cf. § 269). To this stanza Spenser added a ninth verse of six feet rhyming with the eighth line, an addition which was evidently meant to give a very distinct and impressive conclusion to the stanza.
As a specimen the first stanza of the first book of the Faerie Queene, where it was used for the first time, may be quoted here:
A gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine, Ycladd in mightie armes and silver shielde, Wherein old dints of deepe woundes did remaine, The cruell markes of many a bloody fielde; Yet armes till that time did he never wield. His angry steede did chide his foming bitt, As much disdayning to the curbe to yield: Full jolly knight he seemd, and faire did sitt, As one for knightly giusts and fierce encounters fitt.
This euphonious stanza became very popular and has been used by many of the chief Modern English poets, as e.g. by Thomson, The Castle of Indolence; Shenstone, The School-Mistress; Burns, The Cotter’s Saturday Night; Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage; Shelley, The Revolt of Islam.
The great influence it had on the development of the different forms of stanza, especially in the earlier Modern English period, is proved by the numerous imitations and analogous formations which arose from it.
§ 298. All the imitations have this in common that they consist of a series of two to ten five-foot lines followed by a concluding line of six (or rarely seven) feet.
John Donne, Phineas Fletcher, and Giles Fletcher were, it seems, the inventors of those varieties of stanza, the shortest of which consist of three or four lines on the schemes a a5 a6, a b a5 b6, and were used by Rochester, Upon Nothing (Poets, iv. 413), and Cowper (p. 406). A stanza of five lines, however, on the model a b a b5 b6 occurs in Phineas Fletcher’s Eclogue II.
The favourite six-lined stanza with the formula a b a b c c5 (cf. § 267, p. 327) was often transformed into a quasi-Spenserian stanza a b a b c5 c6 by adding one foot to the last line, as e.g. by Dodsley in On the Death of Mr. Pope (Poets, xi. 103), Southey, The Chapel Bell (ii. 143), and others; cf. Metrik, ii, § 493.
It was changed into a stanza of seven lines on the scheme a b a b c c5 c6 by Donne, The Good Morrow (Poets, iv. 24) by the addition of a seventh line rhyming with the two preceding lines.
Much more artistic taste is shown by the transformation of the seven-lined rhyme royal stanza a b a b b c c5 (cf. § 268) into a quasi-Spenserian stanza a b a b b c5 c6 in Milton’s On the Death of a Fair Infant.
By the addition of a new line rhyming with the last couplet this form was developed into the eight-lined stanza a b a b b c c5 c6 employed in Giles Fletcher’s Christ’s Victory and Triumph.
Omitting some rarer forms (cf. Metrik, ii, § 495) we may mention that Phineas Fletcher transformed the ottava rima a b a b a b c c5 into a quasi-Spenserian stanza of the form a b a b a b c5 c6, and that he also extended the same stanza to one of nine lines (a b a b a b c c5 c6) by adding one verse more. Other nine-line quasi-Spenserian stanzas occurring occasionally in modern poets, e.g. Mrs. Hemans, Shelley, and Wordsworth, correspond to a b a a b b c c5 c6, a b a b c d c d5 d6, a b a b c c b d5 d6, a a b b c c d d5 d6. (For specimens see Metrik, ii, § 496.) A stanza of ten lines on the scheme a b a b c d c d e5 e6 was invented by Prior for his Ode to the Queen (Poets, vii. 440); but it is not, as he thought, an improved, but only a simplified form of the old Spenserian scheme:
When great Augustus govern’d ancient Rome, And sent his conquering bands to foreign wars; Abroad when dreaded, and belov’d at home, He saw his fame increasing with his years; Horace, great bard! (so fate ordain’d) arose, And, bold as were his countrymen in fight, Snatch’d their fair actions from degrading prose, And set their battles in eternal light: High as their trumpets’ tune his lyre he strung, And with his prince’s arms he moraliz’d his song.
This stanza has been used by some subsequent poets, e.g. by Chatterton, who himself invented a similar imitation of the old Spenserian form, viz. a b a b b a b a c5 c6. Other stanzas of ten lines are a b a b b c d c d5 d6, a b b a c d d c e5 e6, a b a b c c d e e5 d6. (For specimens see Metrik, ii, § 497.) A stanza of eleven lines on the scheme a b a b c d c d c d5 d6 occurs in Wordsworth in the Cuckoo-clock (viii. 161)
§ 299. Amongst the stanzaic formations analogous to the Spenserian stanza, which for the most part were invented by the poets just mentioned, two different groups are to be distinguished; firstly, stanzas the body of which consists of four-foot (seldom three-foot) verses, a six-foot final verse being added to them either immediately or preceded by a five-foot verse; secondly, stanzas of anisometrical structure in the principal part, the end-verse being of six or sometimes of seven feet.
The stanzas of the first group consist of four to ten lines, and have the following formulas: four-lined stanzas, a b c4 b6 (Wordsworth); five lines, a b a b3 b6 (Shelley); six lines, a b a a b3 b6 (Ben Jonson), a b a b4 c5 c6 (Wordsworth, Coleridge), a a3 b5 c c3 b6 (R. Browning); seven lines, a ~ b b a ~ c c4 c7 (Mrs. Browning); eight lines, a b a b c c d4 d6 (Gray, Wordsworth), a a b b c c d4 d6 (John Scott), a a b b c c4 d5 d6 (Coleridge); nine lines, a b a b c d c4 d5 c6 and a b a b c c d d4 d6 (Akenside), a b a b b c b c4 c6 (Shelley, Stanzas written in Dejection, i. 370); ten lines, a b a b c d c d4 e5 e6 (Whitehead).
As an example we quote a stanza of nine lines from Shelley’s poem mentioned above:
I see the Deep’s untrampled floor With green and purple seaweeds strown; I see the waves upon the shore, Like light dissolved in star-showers, thrown: I sit upon the sands alone, The lightning of the noon-tide ocean Is flashing round me, and a tone Arises from its measured motion, How sweet! did any heart now share in my emotion.
For other examples see Metrik, ii, §§ 499–503..
§ 300. Greater variety is found in the second group; they have an extent of four up to sixteen lines and mostly occur in poets of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries (Donne, Ben Jonson, Cowley, Rowe, Akenside, &c.), rarely in the nineteenth century. Stanzas of four lines are, a5 a b4 b6 (Poets, v. 236), a a4 b5 b6 (ib. xi. 1207); of five lines, a5 a b3 b4 a6 (ib. v. 281), a b a5 b4 b6 (ib. ix. 312), &c.; of six lines, a4 b5 a4 b c5 c6 (ib. xi. 130), a4 b3 a4 b3 c5 c6 (ib. x. 722), a a4 b3 c c4 b6 (ib. xi. 1070; tail-rhyme stanza), a b5 a4 b c5 c6 (Tennyson, The Third of February); of seven lines, a3 b5 b3 a4 c c3 c6 (Poets, v. 413), a b a b5 b3 c5 c6 (Mrs. Hemans, Easter Day, vii. 165, with rhymes in the rhyme royal order; of eight lines, a a3 b5 c c3 b5 d4 d6 (Milton, Hymn on the Nativity, ii. 400; tail-rhyme + d4 d6), a5 b2 a b5 c3 d5 c3 d7 (Poets, iv. 36), a5 a4 b b5 c d c4 d6 (ib. v. 432), a b4 b c a5 d d4 c6 (ib. ix. 794), a b a b c5 c3 d5 d6, and a b5 a4 b3 c5 d4 d3 c6 (Wordsworth, Artegal and Elidure, vi. 47, and ’Tis said that some have died for love, ii. 184, beginning with the second stanza).
The following stanza from the last-mentioned poem may serve as a specimen:
Oh move, thou Cottage, from behind that oak! Or let the aged tree uprooted lie, That in some other way yon smoke May mount into the sky: The clouds pass on; they from the heavens depart. I look—the sky is empty space; I know not what I trace; But when I cease to look, my hand is on my heart.
Stanzas of nine lines, especially occurring in Donne, have the formulas a b b5 a3 c c c4 d5 d6 (Poets, iv. 29), a a b b c5 c d4 d5 d7 (ib. 36), a2 b b a5 c c2 d d5 d7 (ib. 31), a a b b b5 c d d4 c6 (ib. vii. 142), &c.; of ten lines, a a4 b b c c5 d4 d d5 d6 (ib. iv. 28), a a b c c4 b2 d e d5 e6 (ib. ix. 788), a b a b5 c c d d4 e5 e6 (Shelley, Phantasm of Jupiter in Prometheus Unbound); of twelve lines, a b a b5 c c d d e e5 f5 f6 (Poets, xi. 588); of thirteen lines, a b ~4 a5 b ~3 c4 c5 d d2 e5 e2 f5 e2 f6 (Ben Jonson, Ode to James, Earl of Desmond, ib. iv. 572); of fifteen lines, a b a b c5 d d4 d6 c e c e d f5 f6 (Shelley, Ode to Liberty, i. 360–9); of sixteen lines, a b a b a b a b5 c c3 b5 d d3 b5 e4 e6 (Swinburne, New-Year Ode to Victor Hugo (Midsummer Holiday, pp. 39–63).
This last stanza has an exceedingly fine structure, consisting of an isometrical first part and an anisometrical tail-rhyme stanza + an anisometrical rhyming couplet, forming the last part:
Twice twelve times have the springs of years refilled Their fountains from the river-head of time, Since by the green sea’s marge, ere autumn chilled Waters and woods with sense of changing clime, A great light rose upon my soul, and thrilled My spirit of sense with sense of spheres in chime, Sound as of song wherewith a God would build Towers that no force of conquering war might climb. Wind shook the glimmering sea Even as my soul in me Was stirred with breath of mastery more sublime, Uplift and borne along More thunderous tides of song, Where wave rang back to wave more rapturous rhyme And world on world flashed lordlier light Than ever lit the wandering ways of ships by night.
The three stanzas last quoted, as well as some of the shorter ones occurring in Akenside, Rowe, &c., were also used for odes, and in this way the affinity of formations like these with the odic stanzas to be discussed in the next chapter becomes apparent.