English Literature / Unit 1 ENL 0025 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Rhyme Royal, Ottava Rima, the Spenserian Stanza
Captions available
The idea
Rhyme royal is seven pentameter lines, ababbcc, brought into English by Chaucer. Ottava rima is eight, abababcc, an Italian form later used for mock-heroic, as in Byron's Don Juan. The Spenserian stanza, invented for The Faerie Queene, is nine: eight pentameters and an alexandrine, ababbcbcc.
In practice
Seven, eight and nine lines.
Where people slip
Rhyme royal's definition here rests on one source.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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