REN - Major Sonnet Forms: The Petrarchan Sonnet Lesson

The Petrarchan Sonnet, created by Francis Petrarch, is often called the Italian sonnet and includes the following characteristics:

Characteristics of the Petrarchan Sonnet

• One eight-line stanza, called an octave and one six-line
  stanza called a sestet
• A rhyme scheme of abbaabba cdecde or abbaabba
  cdodod
• 11 or 7 syllables per line
• The octave presents a problem, poses a question, or
  expresses an idea, and the sestet (volta) resolve or
  answers the problem or question.

View the translated sonnet below by Francis Petrarch and notice how his specific structure created the Petrarchan sonnet:

"Soleasi Nel Mio Cor"

She ruled in beauty o'er this heart of mine

And now her time for heavenly bliss has come,

'Tis I am mortal proved, and she divine.

The soul that all its blessings must resign,

And love whose light no more on earth finds room,

Might rend the rocks with pity for their doom,

Yet none their sorrows can in words enshrine;

They weep within my heart; and ears are deaf

Save mine alone, and I am crushed with care,

And naught remains to me save mournful breath.

Assuredly but dust and shade we are,

Assuredly desire is blind and brief,

Assuredly its hope but ends in death.

Now read the sonnet below by the Renaissance poet Sir Thomas Wyatt and identify the Petrarchan characteristics

"Whoso List to Hunt"

Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind,

But as for me, hélas, I may no more.

The vain travail hath wearied me so sore,

I am of them that farthest cometh behind.

Yet may I by no means my wearied mind

Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore

Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore,

Sithens in a net I seek to hold the wind.

Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt,

As well as I may spend his time in vain.

And graven with diamonds in letters plain

There is written, her fair neck round about:

Noli me tangere, for Caesar's I am,

And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.

Practice the TPCASTT process in order for the poems to fully understand the Petrarchan sonnets in the lesson.