The Sonnet Tradition
The sonnet form originated in 13th-century Italy but was later
perfected by Petrarch, whose series of poems to Laura (317 in
all) inspired the English sonnet tradition.
The Petrarchan sonnet separates the poem into an octave with
end-rhymes of abba abba and a sestet with variations on a
cdcdcd or cdedce pattern. The implied shift in viewpoint or
tempo between lines 8 and 9 is called the volta or turn.
This sonnet is written in iambic pentameter, five metrical
feet made up of alternating unstressed and stressed syllables. It
sounds something like this:
da DUM
da DUM
da DUM
da DUM
da DUM
Petrarchan Sonnet
Can it be that love fills my heart and brain?
If love, dear God, what is its quality?
If it is good, why does it torture me?
If evil, why this sweetness in my pain?
If I burn gladly, why do I complain?
If I hate burning, why do I never flee?
Oh life-in-death, O lovely agony,
How can you rule me so, if I'm not fain?
And if I'm willing, why do I suffer so? -By such contrary winds I'm blown in terror
In a frail and rudderless bark on open seas,
Ballasted all with ignorance and error.
Even my own desire I do not know;
I burn in winter and in high summer freeze.
The Shakespearean Sonnet is also made up of 14 lines,
which are organized into three quatrains of alternating endrhymes, abab cdcd efef, followed by a couplet of gg.
Here is a visual guide:
a
b
a
b
c
d
c
d
e
f
e
f
FIRST QUATRAIN
SECOND QUATRAIN
THIRD QUATRAIN
TURN
g
g
COUPLET
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet bird sang.
In me thou seest 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 seest the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by.
This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well, which thou must leave ere long.