Sonnet Help/Spenserian Sonnet

Spenserian Sonnet:

Invented by Edmund Spenser, author of the classic THE FAERIE QUEENE, it has the pattern: ABABBCBCCDCDEE

The pattern sets up four distinct line-groups (like the English sonnet). The quatrains (ABAB BCBC CDCD) set up three distinct but related ideas and couplet acts as a commentary. Line 9 usually starts the volta.

see Spenser Sonnet 75

AMORETTI, SONNET #75

By Edmund Spenser

One day I wrote her name upon the strand,

But came the waves and washed it away:

Again I write it with a second hand,

But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.

Vain man, said she, that doest in vain assay,

A mortal thing so to immortalize,

For I myself shall like to this decay,

And eek my name be wiped out likewise.

Not so, (quod I) let baser things devise

To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:

My verse, your virtues rare shall eternize,

And in the heavens write your glorious name.

Where whenas death shall all the world subdue,

Our love shall live, and later life renew.

1594

Listen to the following link IN OUR TIME which contains a special episode on sonnets (do you hear quiz).

You should also check out the following: sonnets.org

Here is another good website about nonce sonnets