Sonnets by Andy Terry

Portrait of Francesco Petrarch (1304 - 1374, Italian poet and humanist.

 

A sonnet is a poetic form which originated in Italy; Giacomo da Lentini is credited with its invention.

 

The term sonnet is derived from the Italian word sonetto (from Old Provencal sonet a little poem, from son song, from Latin sonus a sound). By the thirteenth century it signified a poem of fourteen lines that follows a strict rhyme scheme and specific structure. Conventions associated with the sonnet have evolved over its history.

 

There are many different forms of the sonnet. One that Andy has been particularly drawn to is the Italian, or Petrarchan sonnet.

 

The structure of a typical Petrarchan sonnet included two parts that together formed a compact form of "argument". First, the octave (two quatrains), forms the "proposition", which describes a "problem", or "question", followed by a sestet (two tercets), which proposes a "resolution". Typically, the ninth line initiates what is called the "turn", or "volta", which signals the move from proposition to resolution. Even in sonnets that don't strictly follow the problem/resolution structure, the ninth line still often marks a "turn" by signaling a change in the tone, mood, or stance of the poem.Later, the a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a pattern became the standard for Italian sonnets. For the sestet there were two different possibilities: c-d-e-c-d-e and c-d-c-c-d-c. In time, other variants on this rhyming scheme were introduced, such as c-d-c-d-c-d.