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Literary Terms: Alexandrine
An alexandrine is a line of verse containing 12 syllables in iambic hexameter — in other words, a line with six feet, each of which has the stress on the second beat. Most importantly for GRE purposes, you must be able to identify the last line of a Spensarian Stanza as an alexandrine. This is not, however, the only time they occur.
Poetry written in couplets is sometimes varied by the introduction of a triplet, in which the third line is an alexandrine. This occurs in the following example from Dryden, which introduces a triplet after two couplets:
A But satire needs not those, and wit will shine
A Through the harsh cadence of a rugged line:
B A noble error, and but seldom made,
B When poets are by too much force betrayed.
C Thy generous fruits, though gathered ere their prime,
C Still showed a quickness; and maturing time
C But mellows what we write to the dull sweets of rhyme.
One of the best ways to identify small excerpts from poems on the GRE Literature is to know what form they are written in. You may not recognize the 23rd stanza of The Faerie Queene, for example, but if you know that the passage in front of you is a Spenserian stanza, you’re one step closer to knowing who wrote it, when it was written, how many feet there are in each line, etc.
The Spenserian stanza is almost guaranteed to show up on the GRE Literature, and so I recommend you know it in all of its guises. This form was invented by Edmund Spenser for his epic poem The Faerie Queene, and shows up frequently in romantic poetry from the 1800’s.
Structure
Each Spenserian stanza contains nine lines in total: eight lines in iambic pentameter followed by a single, 12 sylable ‘Alexandrine‘ line in iambic hexameter. The rhyme scheme of these lines is “ababbcbcc.”
Examples:
Spenser’s Faerie Queene (first stanza)
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.
The third stanza from Shelly’s “Adonais”:
Oh weep for Adonais-he is dead!
Wake, melancholy Mother, wake and weep!
Yet wherefore? Quench within their burning bed
Thy fiery tears, and let thy loud heart keep,
Like his, a mute and uncomplaining sleep;
For he is gone where all things wise and fair
Descend. Oh dream not that the amorous deep
Will yet restore him to the vital air;
Death feeds on his mute voice, and laughs at our despair .
The Spenserian Stanza in Literature
The Spenserian Stanza experienced a revival in the 1800’s when it was used by the following notable poets:
Lord Byron in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage
John Keats in The Eve of St. Agnes
Percy Bysshe Shelley in The Revolt of Islam and Adonais
Sir Walter Scott in The Vision of Don Roderick
William Wordsworth in The Female Vagrant, included in Wordsworth and Coleridge’s “Lyrical Ballads”
I recommend you memorize this list. It’s easy to get confused with some of these longer poems, and at least one of them is likely to show up on the GRE.
Possible Influences
Spenser’s invention may have been influenced by the following preexisting forms:
ottava rima – Italian form which consists of eight lines of iambic pentameter with the rhyme scheme “abababcc.”
rhyme royal - a traditional mediæval form used by Geoffrey Chaucer and others, which has seven lines of iambic pentameter that rhyme “ababbcc.” (a comparatively modern use of the ottava rima is found in Byron’s Don Juan)
“GATHER ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old time is still a-flying :
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.”
So opens Robert Herrick’s poem To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time. The poem is often compared to Andrew Marvells’ Coy Mistress for its similar thematic content: expounding the principle of carpe diem in order to convince a female addressee to “marry” while she is still beautiful.
Herrick is often classified as a cavalier poet, and is generally known for his bawdy style and frequent references to the female body. Many of his most raunchy poems are addressed to a character named ” Julia.”
Andrew Marvell – “To His Coy Mistress”
“To His Coy Mistress” is a favorite on the GRE literature. You should know it inside out, know that it is a metaphysical poem written by the British author Andrew Marvell (1621 – 1678), and be able to compare it to Robert Herrick’s, “To The Virgins, To Make Much Of Time.”
The poem is written in iambic tetrameter, with rhyme scheme AA BB CC etc. The first stanza is ten couplets long, the second six, and the third seven.
Here is an excerpt, from the second stanza:
But at my back I always hear
Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found,
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song: then worms shall try
That long preserved virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust:
The grave’s a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.
Read the full poem here:
To His Coy Mistress – gutenburg e-text
Written in In 1611 for his wife Anne More Donne, “A Valediction Forbidden Mourning” is one of Donne’s most famous and eloquent pronouncements on the idea of spiritual love. It is also very likely to appear on the GRE in Literature. The poem is written in 4-line stanzas of iambic tetrameter, with eight syllables (four feet) per line. For more information on this poem, you can check out the following sites:
- Read the full text on poets.org.
- Read the Sparknotes for “A Valediction Forbidden Mourning.”
- Visit the online study guide
As an addendum to the usual order of things, I wanted to call your attention to a program I just discovered, one which may prove very useful in enhancing your vocabulary for the GRE literature and general tests. It’s called the Mnemosyne Project, and it makes use of algorithms and current research on memory and learning efficiency to present flash cards in an order that will help you to remember them. And yes, they have a flash card program of 700 difficult GRE vocab words. Here’s how they describe it:
Efficient learning
The Mnemosyne software resembles a traditional flash-card program to help you memorise question/answer pairs, but with an important twist: it uses a sophisticated algorithm to schedule the best time for a card to come up for review. Difficult cards that you tend to forget quickly will be scheduled more often, while Mnemosyne won’t waste your time on things you remember well.
The software runs on Linux, Windows and Mac OS X.
Memory researchWhile you use the software, detailed statistics can be kept on your learning process. If you want, these logs can be uploaded in a transparent and anonymous way to a central server for analysis.
This data will be valuable to study the behaviour of our memory over a very long time period. As an additional benefit, the results will be used to improve the scheduling algorithms behind the software even further.
I haven’t tried it yet, but it sounds pretty fascinating. It’s also open source, which is always nice.
You can read more about it, download the program and get the GRE vocabulary flash cards here.
John Donne – The Flea
The Flea
by John Donne
MARK but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deniest me is ;
It suck’d me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.
Thou know’st that this cannot be said
A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead ;
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pamper’d swells with one blood made of two ;
And this, alas ! is more than we would do.
O stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where we almost, yea, more than married are.
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is.
Though parents grudge, and you, we’re met,
And cloister’d in these living walls of jet.
Though use make you apt to kill me,
Let not to that self-murder added be,
And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.
Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?
Wherein could this flea guilty be,
Except in that drop which it suck’d from thee?
Yet thou triumph’st, and say’st that thou
Find’st not thyself nor me the weaker now.
‘Tis true ; then learn how false fears be ;
Just so much honour, when thou yield’st to me,
Will waste, as this flea’s death took life from thee.
John Donne – “The Dream”
THE DREAM.
by John Donne
DEAR love, for nothing less than thee
Would I have broke this happy dream ;
It was a theme
For reason, much too strong for fantasy.
Therefore thou waked’st me wisely; yet
My dream thou brokest not, but continued’st it.
Thou art so true that thoughts of thee suffice
To make dreams truths, and fables histories;
Enter these arms, for since thou thought’st it best,
Not to dream all my dream, let’s act the rest.
As lightning, or a taper’s light,
Thine eyes, and not thy noise waked me;
Yet I thought thee
—For thou lovest truth—an angel, at first sight;
But when I saw thou saw’st my heart,
And knew’st my thoughts beyond an angel’s art,
When thou knew’st what I dreamt, when thou knew’st when
Excess of joy would wake me, and camest then,
I must confess, it could not choose but be
Profane, to think thee any thing but thee.
Coming and staying show’d thee, thee,
But rising makes me doubt, that now
Thou art not thou.
That love is weak where fear’s as strong as he;
‘Tis not all spirit, pure and brave,
If mixture it of fear, shame, honour have;
Perchance as torches, which must ready be,
Men light and put out, so thou deal’st with me;
Thou camest to kindle, go’st to come; then I
Will dream that hope again, but else would die.
John Donne – “Death Be Not Proud”
John Donne
72. “Death be not proud, though some have called thee”
DEATH be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee, 5
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell, 10
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell’st thou then;
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.
From Holy Sonnets:
XIV
Batter my heart, three-person’d God ; for you
As yet but knock ; breathe, shine, and seek to mend ;
That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp’d town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betroth’d unto your enemy ;
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.