Popular Poet's Portal Forum Some Sonnet Assisstance

if you havent googled what a petrarchan sonnet is already, then you're a wee bit behind.

enless of course, you already know what it is.

Now,

The basic meter of all sonnets in English is iambic pentameter, although there have been a few tetrameter and even hexameter sonnets, as well.

The Italian sonnet is divided into two sections by two different groups of rhyming sounds. The first 8 lines is called the octave and rhymes:

a b b a a b b a

The remaining 6 lines is called the sestet and can have either two or three rhyming sounds, arranged in a variety of ways:

c d c d c d
c d d c d c
c d e c d e
c d e c e d
c d c e d c

The exact pattern of sestet rhymes (unlike the octave pattern) is flexible. In strict practice, the one thing that is to be avoided in the sestet is ending with a couplet (dd or ee), as this was never permitted in Italy, and Petrarch himself (supposedly) never used a couplet ending; in actual practice, sestets are sometimes ended with couplets (Sidney's "Sonnet LXXI given below is an example of such a terminal couplet in an Italian sonnet).

The point here is that the poem is divided into two sections by the two differing rhyme groups. In accordance with the principle (which supposedly applies to all rhymed poetry but often doesn't), a change from one rhyme group to another signifies a change in subject matter. This change occurs at the beginning of L9 in the Italian sonnet and is called the volta, or "turn"; the turn is an essential element of the sonnet form, perhaps the essential element. It is at the volta that the second idea is introduced, as in this sonnet by Wordsworth:

"London, 1802"

Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour:

England hath need of thee: she is a fen

Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,

Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,

Have forfeited their ancient English dower

Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;

Oh! raise us up, return to us again;

And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.

Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart;

Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:

Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,

So didst thou travel on life's common way,

In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart

The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

 

Here, the octave develops the idea of the decline and corruption of the English race, while the sestet opposes to that loss the qualities Milton possessed which the race now desperately needs.

(

I have produced a sonnet, a poor one, and its actually one of my first attempts at poetry.

 

Low

I do not believe of love at first sight,
because it was a kiss that stole my heart,
and thats when the drama began to start,
and I´ll never forget that fateful night.

They say that love is pain and it does bite,
I must agree that to love is an art,
I feel like I was struck by a love dart,
I swear that I have never felt sooo right!

And yet I couldn´t help feeling lied to,
some secret I wasn´t supposed to know,

what did I do to deserve this my boo,
how could you have fallen so damn low,

because you broke and shattered my heart so,
tell me baby how to forgive you.

 

This was originally written my sophomore year for my english class.

Now, any questions?

psh, idk about you, but i see my last post all weird. try to read it the best you can, ive tried edittting it like 5 times.