Petrarchan Sonnet

Petrarchan Sonnet

Petrarch developed the Italian sonnet pattern, which is known to this day as the Petrarchan sonnet or the Italian sonnet. Because of the structure of Italian, the rhyme scheme of the Petrarchan sonnet is more easily fulfilled in that language than in English. The original Italian sonnet form divides the poem's 14 lines into two parts, an octave (first eight lines) and a sestet (last six lines).

Read more about Petrarchan Sonnet:  Form, Structure

Famous quotes containing the word sonnet:

    Ye gentle souls, who dream of rural ease,
    Whom the smooth stream and smoother sonnet please;
    Go! if the peaceful cot your praises share,
    Go, look within, and ask if peace be there:
    If peace be his—that drooping weary sire,
    Of theirs, that offspring round their feeble fire,
    Or hers, that matron pale, whose trembling hand
    Turns on the wretched hearth th’ expiring brand.
    George Crabbe (1754–1832)