Poetic Form: The Petrarchan Sonnet

The sonnet is a form of poetry dating back to 12th-13th century Italy. One of the most popular and influential early sonnet writers was Francesco Petrarca, know in English as Petrarch. The Petrarchan Sonnet or Italian Sonnet has a characteristic split into two parts, the first eight lines form the octave and the last six lines for the sestet. The rhyme pattern of the octave is usually abbaabba, while that of the sestet varies from the following three: cdcdcd or cdedce or cddcdd. The following poems are examples of the Petrarchan Sonnet rhyme scheme.

Gli Occhi Di Ch' Io Parlai
By Petrarch
Translated by Thomas Wentworth Higginson
(abbaabba cdcdc)

Those eyes, 'neath which my passionate rapture rose, A
The arms, hands, feet, the beauty that erewhile B
Could my own soul from its own self beguile, B
And in a separate world of dreams enclose, A
The hair's bright tresses, full of golden glows, A
And the soft lightning of the angelic smile B
That changed this earth to some celestial isle, B
Are now but dust, poor dust, that nothing knows. A

And yet I live! Myself I grieve and scorn, C
Left dark without the light I loved in vain, D
Adrift in tempest on a bark forlorn; C
Dead is the source of all my amorous strain, D
Dry is the channel of my thoughts outworn, C
And my sad harp can sound but notes of pain. D

Soleasi Nel Mio Cor
By Petrarch
Translated by Thomas Wentworth Higginson
(abbaabba cdedce)

She ruled in beauty o'er this heart of mine, A
A noble lady in a humble home, B
And now her time for heavenly bliss has come, B
'Tis I am mortal proved, and she divine. A
The soul that all its blessings must resign, A
And love whose light no more on earth finds room, B
Might rend the rocks with pity for their doom, B
Yet none their sorrows can in words enshrine; A

They weep within my heart; and ears are deaf C
Save mine alone, and I am crushed with care, D
And naught remains to me save mournful breath. E
Assuredly but dust and shade we are, D
Assuredly desire is blind and brief, C
Assuredly its hope but ends in death. E

Why would Petrarch break up the sonnet into these two parts? Petrarch developed this sonnet type in order to have a problem or question in the octave and a solution in the sestet. The octave and sestet may be used for a number of other ways too, to display a point and then a counterpoint or to display two sides to the same story. Possibilities are with this form are vast. Some writers have used this form to have a coheisive story that progresses from one part to the next. The break can be used to show passage of time or distance. The break of the octave and sestet can signify a change in a character, for example a before and after posting of person. For more information just head to your local library or just google the ever popular Petrarchan Sonnet, which thousands of poets have writen, for example and one of my favorites Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Severed Selves
Sonnet XL
from The House of Life
By Dante Gabriel Rossetti
1871, 1881

Two separate divided silences,
Which, brought together, would find loving voice;
Two glances which together would rejoice
In love, now lost like stars beyond dark trees;
Two hands apart whose touch alone gives ease;
Two bosoms which, heart-shrined with mutual flame,
Would, meeting in one clasp, be made the same;
Two souls, the shores wave-mocked of sundering seas:--

Such are we now. Ah! may our hope forecast
Indeed one hour again, when on this stream
Of darkened love once more the light shall gleam?
An hour how slow to come, how quickly past,
Which blooms and fades, and only leaves at last,
Faint as shed flowers, the attenuated dream.