a fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter comprised of an octave to a sestet and rhyming in some variation of abbaabbacdecde.
a sonnet consisting of an octave with the rhyme pattern abbaabba, followed by a sestet with the rhyme pattern cdecde or cdcdcd
The oldest form of the sonnet is the Italian or Petrarchan Sonnet (named for its greatest practitioner—Petrarch). Its rhyme scheme is usually an octave (eight lines) and a sestet (six lines). The octave usually follows a pattern of abbaabba. The concluding sestet may be cdecde or cdcdcd or cdedce.
A fourteen-line lyric poem rhyming abba abba in the octave and variously in the sestet. Sometimes called the "Italian sonnet." Wyatt, Surrey, Donne, and Milton all wrote Petrarchan sonnets. Shakespeare wrote in an alternate form (the " Shakespearean sonnet")
A fourteen-line lyric poem consisting of two parts: the octave (or first eight lines) and the sestet (or last six lines). The Petrarchan, or Italian sonnet, originated in Italy in thirteenth century and was much used by the Italian poet Francesco Petraarch. Its rhyme scheme is abbaabba cdecde.
also called Italian sonnet sonnet form that divides the poem into one section of eight lines (octave) and a second section of six lines (sestet), usually following the abbaabba cdecde rhyme scheme or, more loosely, an abbacddc pattern.
