THE FORM OF THE POEM
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he basic unit of the poem is a verse or _stanza_ made up of ninelines. This "Spenserian stanza", much imitated (for example, byByron), is Spenser's own invention. Typically, it consists ofeight pentameters and a final alexandrine. Lines are sometimesshort or long, on occasion perhaps through typographical error(see for example II iii 26.9), but at other times for deliberateeffect (e.g. III iv 39.7, IV i 3). The rhyming scheme is generally _ababbcbcc_, though this too issubject to change, whether by authorial oversight or authorialintention (e.g. II ii 7, VII vii 28). The stanzas are not numbered in the original editions. Between 30 and 87 stanzas comprise a _canto_ (Italian, "song"), aterm borrowed from Lodovico Ariosto, the Italian poet, whose workinfluenced Spenser. A canto is preceded by a four-line verse called an _argument_.This summarizes what follows, often with particular emphasis onits allegorical meaning. The metre of the argument is that ofthe _Book of Common Prayer_. Each complete book is introduced by a _proem_, a group of betweenfour and eleven stanzas preceding the argument of Canto i. Twelve cantos comprise a _book_. Book VII is incomplete. Spenser's stated plan was to write twelve books, one on each ofthe twelve moral or private virtues; it is not known whether hecomposed any more of _The Faerie Queene_ than has survived. _TheFaerie Queene_ was to have been followed by another epic poem oftwelve more books, one on each of the political or publicvirtues. No trace of this work has ever been found.
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