The Petrachan and the English sonnets


The Renaissance poetic tradition kicked off in Italy in the 14th century. Ranissance means rebirth of classical tradition in art. The major figure of the period was Petrarch, a man credited with the invention of sonnet and therefore called after his name, as in: Petrachan sonnet. It's also known as Italian sonnet. This sonnet is comprised of two major divisions, the octave and the sestet. The octave, as known, maintains its function of raising a question of philosophical magnitude. The octave is usually generally eight-lined. The Petrachan sonnet octave is broken into two quatrains, aabb/aabb. The sestet (according to the normal function of a sestet of proffering answer to the question raised in octave) generally has six lines and its rhyme scheme in the Petrachan sonnet is ranging from cdc/cdc or cde/cde to anything close to this. The sestet in this sonnet form has two tercets/triplets

Sir Thomas Wyatt, an Englishman, was credited with exporting the features of the Petrachan sonnet into England. He translated many of the Petrachan sonnets as well. His sonnet rhyme is no different from the Petrachan therefore the sonnet is often called the Italian sonnet. Sir Edmund Spencer, also an Englishman man, a traveller, he realised the new poetic style in Italy and formed his own sonnet from the Italian. The sonnet has three quatrains and a couplet. The rhyme scheme is: abab/bcbc/cdcd/ee. The form of sonnet was also named after the inventor, as in, Spencerian sonnet.

Meanwhile, the most popular sonnet among all is the Shakespearean/Elizabethan or English sonnet. The rhyme scheme is abab/cdcd/efef/gg. It also has three quatrains and a couplet but in a different structure from the Spencerian sonnet. This form of sonnet is being reverenced the Shakespearean, Elizabethan or English sonnet.

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