SHAKESPEAREAN SONNETPETRARCHAN SONNET
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?
WHAT THEY HAVE IN COMMON
14 lines
Strict rhyme scheme.
Specific structure.
Each line containing ten syllables and written in iambic pentameter, in which a pattern of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable is repeated five times.
SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET
Also called Elizabethan Sonnet.
The Shakespearean sonnet is broken down into 3 quatrains and 1 couplet.
The ending couplet of a Shakespearean sonnet usually reverses the tone or message of the previous quatrains.
Rhyme scheme: • ABAB-CDCD-EFEF-GG
PETRARCHAN SONNET
Also called the Italian Sonnet.The Italian commonly is made up of two quatrains (or octave), followed by two tercets (or sestet). Thematically, an Italian sonnet most often relates a conflict (whether physical or spiritual) in the first octave, and comes to a solution in the sestet.Typically, the ninth line creates what is called the "turn" or "volta," which signals the move from proposition to resolution. The Italian sonnet has a more complex frame work, and has more variations. The two quatrains usually runs: ABBA-ABBA, or ABAB-BABA, while the second half was either devided into a sestet of CDC-CDC, or a two tercets of CDE-CDE.