Petrarchan sonnet
Octave-sestet love poem
A Petrarchan sonnet is a fourteen-line poem divided into an eight-line octave and a six-line sestet, following a specific rhyme scheme—typically ABBAABBA in the octave, with variations in the sestet.
Named after the Italian poet Petrarch, this form traditionally presents a problem or question in the octave, then resolves or reflects on it in the sestet.
The shift between sections is called the volta or turn.
- voltaRepeated section's alternate ending
- LauraWoman's given name
- CanzonierePetrarch's lyric poetry collection
- lyricSong's text
- rhymeMatching terminal sounds
poetic form · idealized beauty · humanism · blazon · rhyme scheme · sestet · octave · courtly love · madrigal · song · 14th century · iambic pentameter · ode · classical revival · poetic imagery · ballad · couplet · love
- poetrypoem, poems, poetry, verse, verses
- Italian LiteratureDante, Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy
- poetry termspoetry, rhyme, verse, rhythm, meter
- Early English VerseChaucer, Spenser, Milton, Shakespeare, Donne
- european verseode, ballad, villanelle, sestina, rondeau
- Italian Renaissance literatureDivine Comedy, Decameron, The Prince, Orlando Furioso, Inferno
Petrarchan sonnetfree verse
Poetry without fixed structure
prose poem · beat poetry · stream of consciousness · haiku · limerick
Petrarchan sonnetfree verse
Poetry without fixed structure
prose poetry · experimental poetry · haiku · epic poetry · blank verse