Poem Analysis: Petrarchan Sonnet

938 Words4 Pages

A sonnet is a single stanza poem which comprises of fourteen lines, written in an Iambic pentameter. A simple grouping of syllables, stressed and unstressed, is called a foot. One way to describe a verse line is to talk about how many stressed and unstressed syllables are in the line.The Iambic foot is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Whereas pentameter means that there are five feet in the line .So, "Iambic Pentameter," therefore means a line of ten syllables alternating stressed and unstressed syllables according to the Iambic rhythm.

When a pattern is formed by the rhyming words at the end of each line then it is known as rhyming scheme of a sonnet. Each end rhyme is assigned a letter, and thus the fourteen letters assigned describe the rhyme scheme of the sonnet. Moreover , different kinds of sonnets have different rhyme schemes.

The Petrarchan sonnet has rhyme scheme as 'ABBAABBA CDECDE ' which is named after the fourteenth century famous Italian poet ,Petrarch.The first eight lines all end in either rhyme A or B, form the octave. Whereas the last six lines end with C, D, or E, form the …show more content…

The Shakespearean sonnet has the rhyme scheme as ABAB CDCD EFEF GG which form the three quatrains (four lines in a group) and a closing couplet (two rhymed lines). But the problem is usually progressed in the first three quatrains where each quatrain with a new idea is growing out of the previous one. Sometimes the first two quatrains are behallowed of the same thought, resembling the octave of the Petrarchan sonnet, and followed by a similar volta. Most surprisingly, unlike the Petrarchan version, the Shakespearean sonnet is brought to an effective resolution in the epigrammatic final

Open Document