During the twentieth century W. H. Auden in his Letter to Lord Byron used this verse form. Usually e
During the twentieth century W. H. Auden in his Letter to Lord Byron used this verse form. Usually employed in iambic pentameter, the stanza can be constructed either as a tercet and two couplets or a quatrain and a tercet. It first appeared in its most famous practitioner's "Complaint unto Pity." Shakespeare used it for his "Rape of Lucrece" and Edmund Spenser adapted his namesake stanza from it. Having rhyme scheme a-b-a-b-b-c-c --for 10 points-- name this stanza form used by Chaucer and most likely not named for its use in the "Kingis Quaire" by King James I.
During the twentieth century W. H. Auden in his Letter to Lord Byron used this verse form.
{Rhyme Royal}