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THE FAERIE QUEENE VERSIFICATION AND STYLE lxni
or distilling into one perfect sentence the emotion that the rest of the
stanza has evoked
Ah Loue, lay downe thy bow, the whiles I may respire (I IX 8 )
This Alexandrine, as a rule, has an almost regular iambic beat, and a caesura
which splits the line into two equal parts , and even so constructed it can
be put to many different uses It can express a tender beauty
So faire a creature yet saw neuer sunny day (I ix 13 )
It can roll magnificently as when it tells
or of
Of old Assaracus and Inachus diuine (11 ix 56 )
A sacrament prophane in mistery of wine (in ix 30)
it can be utterly simple
for all we haue is his what he list doe, he may (v ii 41 )
A slight variation from the normal type voices the subtlest grades of
feeling 1 The addition of a syllable to the fifth foot of the line makes
it dance with the grace and lightness of a bride
When forth from virgin bow re she comes in th'early morne
(11 xII 50)
By the avoidance of any marked caesura it seems to gain an added length
and a more sustained and sinuous flow as of a snake that
Through the greene gras his long bright burnisht backe declares (in xi 28 )
When the line is split by the caesura into three equal parts instead of two
it acquires a slow and halting movement, as of pain and weariness
Their hearts were sicke, their sides were sore, their feete were lame
(vi v 40 )
In all these lines an effect is attained which would be beyond the scope
of a decasyllabic verse But to quote isolated Alexandrines gives no just;
idea of their true value , for their effect they depend upon their vital
relation with the metrical scheme of the whole stanza No poet has evet
woven a web of verse as subtly intricate as Spenser's Throughout the
vast length of his poem he heightens the effect proper to his interlacing
rhyme-system by a constant assonance and alliteration, and by the haunting
Repetition of word, phrase, cadence Spenser's supreme tour de force
in this manner is to be found In the oft quoted stanzas from the
1 This is true also of Spenser's decasyllabics, which for the most part run with
a smooth iambic beat, but are varied at times with telling effect e g II viii 3,
' Come hither, come hither, O come hastily', a line which the Folio editor found too
irregular for his taste
SPENSER