Petrarchan
Fourteen-line love form
Petrarchan describes poetry following the style or forms associated with the Italian poet Petrarch.
A Petrarchan sonnet has fourteen lines divided into an eight-line octave and a six-line sestet, with a characteristic turn in thought between them: The Petrarchan form suited her themes of longing and loss.
Petrarchan conventions include idealized, unrequited love and elaborate praise of the beloved.
Eight-note interval
- sestetSix-line verse unit
- voltaRepeated section's alternate ending
- rhyme schemeSound-matching arrangement in poetry
- fourteen linesSonnet's defining measure
iambic pentameter · turn · quatrain · tercet · Italian sonnet · couplet · meter · stanza
Petrarch's lyric poetry collection
- RenaissanceEuropean cultural reawakening
- humanismPhilosophy prioritizing earthly reason
- Italian literatureWritten works from Rome's nation
- influencePower to affect others
imitation · convention · trope · conceit · oxymoron · antithesis · blazon · vernacular
Woman's given name
- unrequitedNot returned in kind
- idealizationRegarding as perfect
- belovedOne who is treasured
- courtly loveChivalric romantic ideal
devotion · longing · adoration · chaste · unattainable · worship · muse · beauty
Years 1301-1400
- AvignonFrench papal seat
- scholarLearned, studious person
- humanistEthics-focused secular philosopher
- poet laureateOfficial state verse maker
manuscript · classical revival · Latin · Boccaccio · Dante · Cicero · antiquity · philology
octave
Eight-note interval
- sestetSix-line verse unit
- voltaRepeated section's alternate ending
- rhyme schemeSound-matching arrangement in poetry
fourteen lines · iambic pentameter · turn · quatrain · tercet · Italian sonnet · couplet · meter · stanza · lyric
Canzoniere
Petrarch's lyric poetry collection
- RenaissanceEuropean cultural reawakening
- humanismPhilosophy prioritizing earthly reason
- Italian literatureWritten works from Rome's nation
influence · imitation · convention · trope · conceit · oxymoron · antithesis · blazon · vernacular · Tuscan
Laura
Woman's given name
- unrequitedNot returned in kind
- idealizationRegarding as perfect
- belovedOne who is treasured
courtly love · devotion · longing · adoration · chaste · unattainable · worship · muse · beauty · suffering
fourteenth century
Years 1301-1400
poet laureate · manuscript · classical revival · Latin · Boccaccio · Dante · Cicero · antiquity · philology · letters
PetrarchanShakespearean
Of the Stratford playwright
English sonnet · Elizabethan · Spenserian · free verse · unstructured
- Petrarchan sonnetFourteen-line poem, octave-sestet structure