Spenserian Metre (The)
.The metre in which Spenser’s Faërie Queene is written. It is a stanza of nine iambic lines, all of ten syllables except the last, which is an Alexandrine. Only three different rhymes are admitted into a stanza, and these rhymes are thus disposed: Lines 1 and 3 rhyme; lines 2, 4, 5, 7 rhyme; lines 6, 8, 9 rhyme; thus:—
1
2
low
3
side
4
5
snow
6
had
7
blow
8
lad
9
sad (an alexandrine).
