The Italian Sonnet: Like Shakespeare, But Not Really

When I was thinking of different kinds of forms of poetry to look at, the Sonnet stuck out to me. I have heard of them before but was confused as to what it actually meant. After some research, I realized that there are actually two kinds of Sonnets. I started looking into the "Italian" Sonnet vs the "English/Shakespearian" one.

Both kinds of Sonnet's have 14 lines, but that is where the similarities stop. The "Italian" Sonnet, or the Petrarchan Sonnet, divides the 14 lines into 2 sections. The rhyming schemes for the Petrarchan Sonnet's first section is ABBAABBA, and the second section is CDCDCD or CDECDE.

For example, I looked at "Sonnet 19: When I consider how my light is spent" by John Milton, a poem in the Petrarchan Sonnet form.


Here, we have a great example of the rhyming schemes in this poem, as highlighted with different colors. Yellow is A, Purple is B, Green is C, Blue is D and the darker blue is E. 

Typically Sonnets are created as love poems, but interestingly, this one isn't. I see this poem as using the form to create a solidity to his poem. Sometimes, free form poetry without rhyme can come off as more free flowing. To me, it seems as if the point of this style of poetry is to like color inside the lines, and not be as risk taking. Therefore, I am going to show you my trying-to-be-risk-taking Petrarchan poem about my dog Ziggy.


 

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