Rhyme royal
The rhyme royal ("royal rhyme"; also royal stanza) is a stanzaic form of English poetry.
It consists of seven verses in the meter known as heroic verse (a form of iambic pentameter) with the rhyme scheme [ababbcc]. Thus the stanza can be divided either into a tercet and two couplets ([aba:bb:cc]) or into a quatrain and a trident ([abab:bcc]). This allows the rhyme royal a great deal of latitude, especially in epic poems.
The form was invented by Geoffrey Chaucer (hence called Chaucer strophe), who developed it by omitting the seventh line from the eight-syllable French ballad strophe (ababbcbc). Chaucer used it in some of his early poems (The Parliament of Fowles), in Troilus and Criseyde, and in four of his Canterbury Tales.
The name of the stanza is probably due to the fact that King James I of Scotland used it in his Chauceresque poem The Kingis Quaire (shortly before 1424).
Numerous English poets have used the form after Chaucer, including:
- John Lydgate
- Robert Henryson (Morall Fabillis; Testament of Cresseid)
- Thomas Wyatt (They flee from me that sometime did me seek)
- Alexander Barclay (Ship of Fools, 1509)
- Stephen Hawes (Pastime of Pleasure, 1509).
- Thomas Sackville (Complaint of Henry, Duke of Buckingham, 1563)
- Edmund Spenser (The Ruins of Time, 1591; Fowre Hymnes, 1596)
- William Shakespeare (The Rape of Lucrece, 1594)
An example from Wyatt's They flee from me that sometime did me seek:
They flee from me that sometime did me seek
With naked foot, stalking in my chamber.
I have seen them gentle, tame, and meek,
That now are wild and do not remember
That sometime they put themself in danger
To take bread at my hand; and now they range,
Busily seeking with a continual change.
By the end of the 16th century the stanzaic form was losing its importance. More recent attempts at revival by Thomas Chatterton, William Morris, John Masefield and Emma Lazarus failed to find an echo. Modified forms are found-some with Alexandrians as the final verse-and modified rhyme scheme by John Donne and John Milton ([ababccc]), James Thomson ([ababccb]), and Robert Browning ([ababcca]). A variant of the royal stanza is the stanza with the ababbaa rhyme scheme:
Questions and Answers
Q: What is a rhyme royal?
A: Rhyme royal is a seven-line stanza with the rhyme scheme a-b-a-b-b-c-c, typically used in English literature.
Q: Who introduced the rhyme royal to English poetry?
A: Geoffrey Chaucer introduced the stanza into English poetry in the 14th century.
Q: Where may the rhyme royal have been borrowed from?
A: The rhyme royal may have been borrowed from Italian or French poetry.
Q: Is the rhyme royal typically composed of ten-syllable lines?
A: Yes, in English literature, rhyme royal is almost always composed of ten-syllable lines with five beats.
Q: Was the rhyme royal popular outside of England?
A: No, outside England, the rhyme royal is not as popular.
Q: Who are some poets that wrote using rhyme royal?
A: William Morris and John Masefield frequently wrote using rhyme royal.
Q: Did the rhyme royal continue to be popular in the 20th century?
A: No, in the 20th century, the rhyme royal went out of use.
