00706--What is Spenserian Stanza?

What is Spenserian Stanza?

The Spenserian stanza (named for Edmund Spenser, who invented it for his romance The FaerieQueene) consists of nine iambic lines rhyming in the pattern ababbcbcc. Each of the first eight lines contains five feet, and the ninth contains six. The rhyming pattern helps to create unity, and the six-foot line, called an alexandrine,

slows down the stanza and so gives dignity and allows for reflection on the ideas in the stanza. Byron used the Spenserian stanza in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.