I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs; I saw from out the wave her structures rise O'er the far times, when many a subject land Where Venice sate in state, throned on her hundred isles. (BYRON Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, canto iv. st. i. 1818.) : A casement high and triple-arch'd there was, All garlanded with carven imag'ries Of fruits, and flowers, and bunches of knot-grass, As are the tiger-moth's deep-damask'd wings; A shielded scutcheon blush'd with blood of queens and (KEATS: Eve of St. Agnes. 1820.) kings. ... Professor Corson remarks: "Probably no English poet who has used the Spenserian stanza, first assimilated so fully the spirit of Spenser, as did Keats; and to this fact may be partly attributed his effective use of it as an organ for his imagination in its lingering, loving, particularizing mood.'" (Primer of English Verse, p. 124.) The splendors of the firmament of time May be eclips'd, but are extinguish'd not; Like stars to their appointed height they climb, The brightness it may veil. When lofty thought Lifts a young heart above its mortal lair, And love and life contend in it for what Shall be its earthly doom, the dead live there And move like winds of light on dark and stormy air. (SHELLEY: Adonais, st. 44. 1821.) With reference to his use of this stanza Shelley remarked, in the Preface to The Revolt of Islam: "I have adopted the stanza of Spenser (a measure inexpressibly beautiful), not because I consider it a finer model of poetical harmony than the blank verse of Shakespeare and Milton, but because in the latter there is no shelter for mediocrity: you must either succeed or fail. . . . But I was enticed also by the brilliancy and magnificence of sound which a mind that has been nourished upon musical thoughts can produce by a just and harmonious arrangement of the pauses of this measure." Professor Corson (Primer of English Verse, p. 112) quotes Mr. Todhunter as saying: "Compare the impetuous rapidity and pale intensity of Shelley's verse with the lulling harmony, the lingering cadence, the voluptuous color of Spenser's, or with the grandiose majesty of Byron's. . . . In Adonais, indeed, a poem on which he bestowed much labor, he handles the stanza in a masterly manner, and endows it with an individual music beautiful and new." "Courage!" he said, and pointed toward the land, In which it seemed always afternoon. All round the coast the languid air did swoon, Breathing like one that hath a weary dream. Full-faced above the valley stood the moon; And like a downward smoke, the slender stream Along the cliff to fall and pause and fall did seem. (TENNYSON: The Lotos-Eaters. 1833.) abababccc A fisher boy, that never knew his peer In dainty songs, the gentle Thomalin, With folded arms, deep sighs, and heavy cheer, To cure his grief, and better way advise ; (PHINEAS FLETCHER: Piscatory Eclogues. ab. 1630.) Fletcher was an imitator of Spenser, and here devises a stanza differing little from his master's. The final alexandrine is used with the same effect. For other instances of final alexandrines, doubtless used under the general influence of the Spenserian stanza, see the following specimens. aabaabcc If ye Ring out, ye crystal spheres ! Once bless our human ears, have power to touch our senses so; And let your silver chime Move in melodious time; And let the bass of heaven's deep organ blow; Make up full consort to the angelic symphony. (MILTON: On the Morning of Christ's Nativity. 1629.) ababbcbcdd What? Ella dead? and Bertha dying too? So fall the fairest flowrets of the plain. Or who untwist the roll of fate in twain? Ælla, thy glory was thy only gain; For that, thy pleasure and thy joy was lost. In heaven thou sing of God, on earth we'll sing of thee. This is the ten-line "Chatterton stanza," a variant of the Spenserian stanza, devised by Chatterton, which he claimed antedated Spenser by one or two centuries. His claim for it was of course purely fictitious. aabbbcc Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, Leave thy low-vaulted past! Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea! (OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES: The Chambered Nautilus. 1858.) See also the notable use of the alexandrine in Shelley's Skylark, p. 34, above. ababababbcbc The dubbement dere of doun and dalez, The fyrre I folghed those floty valez, The more strenghthe of joye myn herte straynez, Whether solace ho sende other ellez sore, The wygh, to wham her wylle ho waynez, (The Pearl, st. xi. Fourteenth century.) Mr. Israel Gollancz says, in his Introduction to this poem: "I can point to no direct source to which the poet of Pearl was indebted for his measure; that it ultimately belongs to Romance poetry I have little doubt. These twelve-line verses seem to me to resemble the earliest form of the sonnet more than anything else I have as yet discovered. . . . Be this as it may, all will, I hope, recognize that there is a distinct gain in giving to the 101 stanzas of the poem the appearance of a sonnet sequence, marking clearly the break between the initial octave and the closing quatrain. . . The refrain, the repetition of the catch-word of each verse, the trammels of alliteration, all seem to have offered no difficulty to our poet; and if power over technical difficulties constitutes in any way a poet's greatness, the author of Pearl, from this point of view alone, must take high rank among English poets." (Introduction, pp. xxiv, xxv.) Other examples of intricate stanza structure are found in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, supposed to be by the author of Pearl. See in Part Two, p. 156. aabccbddbeebffgggf Ne mai no lewed lued libben in londe, zef ich on molde mote wip a mai, y shal falle hem byfore & lurnen huere lay, |