Italian sonnet
Octave-sestet poem form
An Italian sonnet is a fourteen-line poem divided into an octave (eight lines) and a sestet (six lines), with a volta or thematic turn between them.
The rhyme scheme is typically ABBAABBA for the octave, with the sestet varying.
Also called a Petrarchan sonnet, after the Italian poet who perfected the form.
She analyzed the Italian sonnet's shift in argument at line nine.
Eight-note interval
- sestetSix-line verse unit
- voltaRepeated section's alternate ending
- rhyme schemeSound-matching arrangement in poetry
- quatrainFour-line poetic unit
tercet · turn · stanza · couplet · iambic pentameter · meter · enjambment · lineation
Medieval Italian lyric poet
- PetrarchanSonnet style from Tuscany
- RenaissanceEuropean cultural reawakening
- troubadourMedieval Provençal lyric poet
- LauraWoman's given name
courtly love · Dante · Beatrice · Wyatt · Sidney · Milton · Wordsworth · humanist
Vivid descriptive language
- dictionChoice of words
- toneQuality of sound
- syntaxRules for arranging words
- metaphorImplied identity comparison
conceit · apostrophe · personification · antithesis · parallelism · compression · wit · poetic device
Matching terminal sounds
- cadenceRhythmic pulse or pattern
- assonanceVowel sound repetition
- consonanceHarmonious sound combination
- alliterationMatching initial consonants
musicality · euphony · rhythm · stress · syllable · scansion · beat · flow
octave
Eight-note interval
- sestetSix-line verse unit
- voltaRepeated section's alternate ending
- rhyme schemeSound-matching arrangement in poetry
quatrain · tercet · turn · stanza · couplet · iambic pentameter · meter · enjambment · lineation · fourteen lines
Petrarch
Medieval Italian lyric poet
- PetrarchanSonnet style from Tuscany
- RenaissanceEuropean cultural reawakening
- troubadourMedieval Provençal lyric poet
Laura · courtly love · Dante · Beatrice · Wyatt · Sidney · Milton · Wordsworth · humanist · medieval
imagery
Vivid descriptive language
metaphor · conceit · apostrophe · personification · antithesis · parallelism · compression · wit · poetic device · symbolism
rhyme
Matching terminal sounds
- cadenceRhythmic pulse or pattern
- assonanceVowel sound repetition
- consonanceHarmonious sound combination
alliteration · musicality · euphony · rhythm · stress · syllable · scansion · beat · flow · repetition
love
Intense fond attachment
devotion · praise · lament · mortality · unrequited · idealization · suffering · nature · time · loss
- Italian RenaissanceAriosto, quattrocento, humanism, Petrarch, Machiavelli
- poetry formshaiku, tanka, limerick, limericks, ballad
- sonnetsoctave, sestet, fourteen lines, volta, quatrain
- Italian poetryDante, Petrarch, ottava rima, madrigal, Inferno
- Petrarchan poetryCanzoniere, Laura, octave, sestet, volta
- Renaissance poetrySpenser, Sidney, Marlowe, Elizabethan literature, iambic pentameter
Italian sonnetfree verse
Poetry without fixed structure
beat poetry · prose poem · prose poetry · experimental poetry · confessional poetry
Italian, Italy, Italianate, italicize, italics, sonnet, sonneteer, sonnets