The Spenserian sonnet is an extension of the Spenserian stanza, continuing its interlocking rhyme patterns through twelve lines and then finishing off with a couplet: ababbcbccdcdee.

                            VEnemous toung tipt with vile adders sting,
                            Of that selfe kynd with which the Furies tell
                            theyr snaky heads doe combe, from which a spring
                            of poysoned words and spitefull speeches well.
                            Let all the plagues and horrid paines of hell,
                            vpon thee fall for thine accursed hyre:
                            that with false forged lyes, which thou didst tel,
                            in my true loue did stirre vp coles of yre,
                            The sparkes whereof let kindle thine own fyre,
                            and catching hold on thine owne wicked hed
                            consume thee quite, that didst with guile conspire
                            in my sweet peace such breaches to haue bred.
                            Shame be thy meed, and mischiefe thy reward.
                            dew to thy selfe that it for me prepard.
                                                                                    --Edmund Spenser

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