By Rachel E. Tomcsik
The English Department congratulates Rutgers College
student Gina Wise, who was awarded Honorable Mention
in the Spenserian Stanza Competition for her poem, “The
Fairie Queene: Vnleash’d.”
The annual Spenserian Stanza Competition is a contest
jointly sponsored by the Edmund Spenser Home Page, the
Spenser Review, and the International Spenser Society.
Ms. Wise was one of only eight poets recognized in this
year’s competition for her excellence in writing
Spenserian stanzas. Renaissance poet Edmund Spenser
wrote his greatest work, The Fairie Queene,
entirely in the stanza form that he created, a poetic
form that is notoriously complex, difficult to write
and to read.
Ms. Wise, an English major and an Anthropology minor,
has been interested in Renaissance literature since
high school. She wrote the poem while taking a seminar
on Spenser with Professor Jacqueline T. Miller and a
creative writing course with Sina Queyras.
Her poem describes, ironically, the frustration that
many of Spenser’s readers experience when trying
to understand the language and dense allegory of The
Fairie Queene. “I’m glad the judge
had a sense of humor and didn’t discard my poem
because of the topic I chose,” Ms. Wise said.
To read the full text of Ms. Wise’s poem and
to learn more about the competition, please visit The
Edmund Spenser Home Page.
The Spenserian Stanza: A Brief Introduction
Named after English Renaissance poet Edmund Spenser,
the Spenserian stanza consists of nine lines, rhyming
ababbcbcC. The first eight lines are in iambic
pentameter, containing ten syllables and five alternating
stresses. This rhythm is familiar to many of us from
Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets. The final line
of each stanza is an Alexandrine, which is a line of
verse in iambic hexameter (twelve syllables, 6 beats)
instead of pentameter. The extra two syllables extend
the last line, making it break the rhythm and punctuate
the stanza with an additional rhyme.
The form was later imitated in the eighteenth century
but was modified to make it easier to read and write.
The original form would make a comeback in the Romantic
period. Here is the first stanza from Spenser’s
The Fairie Queene:
Lo I the man, whose Muse whilome did maske,
As time her taught, in lowly Shepheards weeds,
Am now enforst a far vnfitter taske,
For trumpets sterne to chaunge mine Oaten reeds,
And sing of Knights and Ladies gentle deeds;
Whose prayses hauing slept in silence long,
Me, all too meane, the sacred Muse areeds
To blazon broad emongst her learned throng:
Fierce warres and faithfull loues shall moralize my
song.
For more examples of poems in the Spenserian stanza
format, please visit here.
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