Spenserian Sonnet

A sonnet is a poem in a specific form that originated in Italy; Giacomo da Lentini is credited with its invention. The term sonnet is derived from the Italian word sonetto. By the thirteenth century it signified a poem of fourteen lines that follows a strict Rhyme scheme and specific structure.

When English sonnets were introduced by Thomas Wyatt (1503–1542) in the early 16th century, his sonnets and those of his contemporary the Earl of Survey were chiefly translations from the Italian of Petrarch and the French of  Ronsard and others. While Wyatt introduced the sonnet into English, it was Surrey who developed the rhyme scheme – ABAB CDCD EFEF GG – which now characterizes the English sonnet. These sonnets were all essentially inspired by the Petrarchan tradition. 

Spenserian Sonnet is a  variant on the English form is the Spenserian sonnet, named after Edmund Spenser.(c.1552–1599)

Petrarch (1304-1374) is considered "the first writer of the Renaissance." Although his Italian sonnets rely on courtly love conventions, the Renaissance sees a sort of codification of the material and certainly of the form Petrarch's own sonnets are characterized by the phrase (or motto) "emotion recollected in tranquility." These poems capture and crystalize an emotional state of being, but often a melancholy one. (Washington state univercity)

The Renaissance is period in European History, covering the span between the 14th and 17th centuries. The intellectual basis of the Renaissance was its own invented version of Humanism, derived from the concept of Roman Humanitas and the rediscovery of classical Greek philosophy, such as that of Protagoras, who said that "Man is the measure of all things."

Spenserian Sonnet is a sonnet comprising three quatrains with the latter rhyme part being carried over from one quatrain to the next, and a concluding couplet, therefore comprising a rhyme scheme of abab bcbc cdcd ee. The same letter stands for the same rhyme. The Spenserian sonnet follows the rhyme scheme and is written in iambic pentameter. Which means 10 syllables per line, have 5 iambic feet. Spenser often throws in a false turn by using words like “yet” or “but” around the ninth line, but the true resolution or revelation occurs in the final two lines.

It's inspired by Petrarchantion tradition and generally treat of the poet's love for some woman, with the exception of Shakespeare's sequence of 154 sonnets. The form is often named after Shakespeare, not because he was the first to write in this form but because he became its most famous practitioner. The form consists of fourteen lines structured as three quatrains and a couplet. The third quatrain generally introduces an unexpected sharp thematic or imagistic "turn", the volta.

Volta: A turn in a sonnet is called a volta. A vital part of virtually all sonnets, the volta is most frequently encountered at the end of the octave (first eight lines in Petrarchan or Spenserian sonnets), or the end of the twelfth line in Shakespearean sonnets, but can occur anywhere in the sonnet.