A Spenserian sonnet is a 14-line sonnet form associated with Edmund Spenser. Its most recognizable feature is an interlocking rhyme scheme: abab bcbc cdcd ee. Like many sonnets, it is often written in iambic pentameter, but its linked rhymes give the poem a smoother, more flowing movement from line to line.
Example
At dawn, the harbor wakes beneath a red sky
and gulls unlace the silence with their cry;
the rope still sleeps, the dock is wet and gray,
but nets begin to gleam in early light.
The fishermen return as hours begin to bend,
and salt-scented smoke drifts up and finds the bend;
a child counts waves that break and break again,
while morning loosens every bolt of stone.
The tide brings back the shells it carried off,
and leaves a thin bright seam along the shore;
I follow where the foam has washed the sand,
then stop beside the weather-beaten door.
The day opens like a hand, then closes slow,
as all its linked bright moments ebb and flow.
Related Definitions
[n] a sonnet consisting of three quatrains and a concluding couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme pattern abab bcbd cdcd ee