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The Spenserian sonnet, invented by Edmund Spenser as an outgrowth of the stanza pattern he used in The Faerie Queene (a b a b b c b c c), has the pattern:     a b a b b c b c c d c d e e Here, the "abab" pattern sets up distinct four-line groups, each of which develops a specific idea;however, the overlapping a, b, c, and d rhymes form the first 12 lines into a single unit with a separated final couplet. The three quatrains then develop three distinct but closely related ideas, with a different dea (or commentary) in the couplet.