Petrarchan sonnets, also known as Italian sonnets, are a classical form of verse that originated in Italy during the Renaissance. These sonnets consist of 14 lines written in iambic pentameter.
The structure is divided into an octave (8 lines) followed by a sestet (6 lines). The rhyme scheme of the octave is typically ABBAABBA, while the sestet can have several variations, such as CDECDE or CDCDCD.
Petrarchan sonnets are known for their lyrical and emotional expressions of love, beauty, and spiritual contemplation. The octave usually presents a problem or situation, while the sestet offers a resolution, reflection, or response to the initial theme.
This poetic form has been widely used by poets such as Petrarch, Dante, and Shakespeare.
The poem, ‘Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802, is a celebration of this city, referencing to the bridge over the River Thames.
Earth has not any thing to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
Holy Sonnet 7, ‘At the round earth’s imagin’d corners, blow,’ describes Judgment Day and the speaker’s appeal to God to forgive his sins.
At the round earth's imagined corners, blow
Your trumpets, angels, and arise, arise
From death, you numberless infinities
Of souls, and to your scattered bodies go,
‘The Grave of Keats’ by Oscar Wilde describes the physical state of Keats’ grave and the emotional impact that his short life had on England.
Rid of the world’s injustice, and his pain,
He rests at last beneath God’s veil of blue:
Taken from life when life and love were new
The youngest of the martyrs here is lain,
‘I, Being born a Woman and Distressed’ by Edna St. Vincent Millay encourages women to walk away from emotionally turbulent relationships.
I, being born a woman and distressed
By all the needs and notions of my kind,
Am urged by your propinquity to find
Your person fair, and feel a certain zest
‘Let the world’s sharpness’ (Sonnet 24) is a poem that proposes a resolution to the world’s strife — all turn to, and accept, Love.
Let the world's sharpness, like a clasping knife,
Shut in upon itself and do no harm
In this close hand of Love, now soft and warm,
And let us hear no sound of human strife
‘Our Mothers’ celebrates mothers’ enduring influence and contemplates their spiritual connection beyond life.
Our Mothers, lovely women pitiful;
Our Sisters, gracious in their life and death;
To us each unforgotten memory saith:
"Learn as we learned in life's sufficient school,
‘Whoso List to Hunt’ by Sir Thomas Wyatt uses a hunting metaphor to describe a suitor’s effort to gain the affections of, a woman.
Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind,
But as for me, hélas, I may no more.
The vain travail hath wearied me so sore,
I am of them that farthest cometh behind.
‘London, 1802’ by William Wordsworth is an Italian sonnet that invokes Milton as a means of reclaiming England’s eroded moral values in the industrial age.
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,
In ‘Sonnet 43’, or ‘How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways’ the speaker is proclaiming her unending passion for her beloved.
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
‘My own heart let me more have pity on’ contains the thoughts of a speaker who is seeking a way out of his depressed mental state.
My own heart let me more have pity on; let
Me live to my sad self hereafter kind,
Charitable; not live this tormented mind
With this tormented mind tormenting yet.
‘Silence’ by Thomas Hood describes the ways in which Silence exists in the world and the places that one can find it.
There is a silence where hath been no sound,
There is a silence where no sound may be,
In the cold grave—under the deep deep sea,
Or in wide desert where no life is found,
‘Sonnet 227’ is about “Love,” particularly “Unrequited love.” Petrarch expresses his deep love for Laura, her indifference towards his love, and the various contrasting emotions he undergoes in the poem.
Breeze, blowing that blonde curling hair,
stirring it, and being softly stirred in turn,
scattering that sweet gold about, then
gathering it, in a lovely knot of curls again,
‘They Desire a Better Country’ by Christina Rossetti is an incredibly complex and beautiful poem by the Victorian poet. It’s not one of her better-known, but it does utilize many of the themes and emotions she’s known for.
I would not if I could undo my past,
Tho' for its sake my future is a blank;
My past, for which I have myself to thank,
For all its faults and follies first and last.
‘In an Artist’s Studio’ describes one artist’s obsession over a particular woman and how her face encircles his every thought.
One face looks out from all his canvases,
One selfsame figure sits or walks or leans:
We found her hidden just behind those screens,
That mirror gave back all her loveliness.
This poem demonstrates the full breadth of emotions one can expereince when visiting the tomb of a deceased person.
The town, the churchyard, and the setting sun,
The clouds, the trees, the rounded hills all seem,
Though beautiful, cold — strange — as in a dream
I dreamed long ago, now new begun.
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