petrarchan sonnet
Noun: A Petrarchan sonnet is a specific, traditional form of a 14-line poem. It is structurally divided into two main parts: an octave (the first eight lines) and a sestet (the final six lines). The octave typically presents a problem, question, or emotional tension, and follows a strict rhyme scheme of abbaabba. The sestet provides a resolution, comment, or answer, and follows a rhyme scheme of either cdecde or cdcdcd.
The term is used to classify and analyze poetry, specifically within the study of poetic forms and sonnet traditions. It is named after the Italian poet Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch).
Examples: * Many of Petrarch's own love poems to Laura are written in the Petrarchan sonnet form. * When analyzing the poem, the critic noted its clear division into an octave and a sestet, identifying it as a Petrarchan sonnet. * The Petrarchan sonnet was adapted into English by poets like Sir Thomas Wyatt.
- The structural volta (the turn in thought or argument) in a Petrarchan sonnet usually occurs between the octave and the sestet.
- The form is sometimes called the Italian sonnet to distinguish it from the English or Shakespearean sonnet form.
- Italian sonnet: A direct synonym for Petrarchan sonnet.
- Sonnet: The broader category of 14-line poems to which the Petrarchan sonnet belongs.
- Octave: The first eight-line section of a Petrarchan sonnet.
- Sestet: The final six-line section of a Petrarchan sonnet.
- Volta: The thematic or rhetorical shift that often occurs at the start of the sestet in this form.
- Italian sonnet
- Shakespearean sonnet (or English sonnet): A sonnet form divided into three quatrains and a final couplet, with a rhyme scheme of .
- a sonnet consisting of an octave with the rhyme pattern abbaabba, followed by a sestet with the rhyme pattern cdecde or cdcdcd