Petrarchan and Shakespearean Sonnets

The two major types of sonnets are Petrarchan (or Italian) and Shakespearean (or English or Elizabethan).

Both types have fourteen lines of iambic pentameter with a specific rhyme scheme.

Petrarchan (or Italian)

A

B

B

A OCTAVE

A states a proposition or

B raises a question

B

A

-------

C

D

C SESTET

D applies the proposition or

C solves the problem

D

Nature

As a fond mother, when the day is o’er,

Leads by the hand her little child to bed,

Half willing, half reluctant to be led,

And leave her broken playthings on the floor,

Still gazing at them through the open door,

Nor wholly reassured and comforted

By promises of others in their stead,

Which, though more splendid, may not please him more;

So Nature deals with us, and takes away

Our playthings one by one, and by the hand

Leads us to rest so gently, that we go

Scare knowing if we wish to go or stay,

Being too full of sleep to understand

How far the unknown transcends the what we know.

--Longfellow

Shakespearean (or English or Elizabethan)

A

B First QUATRAIN

A Image or example #1

B

-----

C

D Second QUATRAIN

C Image or example #2

D

-----

E

F Third QUATRAIN

E Image or example #3

F

-----

G COUPLET

G Commentary on the preceding ideas

That Time of Year

That time of year thou mayst in me behold

When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang

Upon these boughs which shake against the cold,

Bare ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang.

In me thou see’st the twilight of such day

As after sunset fadeth in the west,

Which by and by black night doth take away,

Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.

In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire,

That on the ashes of his youth doth lie

As the deathbed whereon it must expire,

Consumed with that which it was nourished by.

This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,

To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

--William Shakespeare