The Italian Sonnet Forms

The Italian Sonnet

     The Italian sonnet, the Sicilian, and  the Petrarchan sonnet are Italian forms, but differ in which  octave forms are used and the different form of the sestet used. While there is no difference in the foot or meter, there is a difference in rhyme scheme.

The Italian sonnet is the older form developed by Giacomo da Lentini.  He started with a Sicilian folk song called the "Strambatto" which was an octet using an abababab rhyme scheme.  He then added a sestet rhyming cdcdcd.  This form has stayed as the Italian sonnet.   It has fourteen lines It has the octave and the sestet. It has the volta usually at the ninth line. It is written with an iambic foot. It is written with the pentameter meter. It uses the Italian octave form with a rhyme scheme of abababab. It uses the Italian form of the sestet with a rhyme scheme of cdcdcd.   Many times it uses the hendacasyllablic  line.

    The early form of the  Sicilian sonnet maintained the Italian  octave with its abababab rhyme scheme and with the sestet rhyming cdcdcd. 

     The form was changed by an unknown Sicilian to rhyming abbacddc  efefef with an iambic pentameter line while keeping the Italian format of octave, sestet, with the volta on the ninth line.

     Later a Sicilian, Giacomo d'Arezzo,  changed the rhyme scheme of the octave to abbaabba.  With the rhyme scheme of the Sicilian sestet efefef he formed what is now called the Sicilian sonnet by many critics.    There are disagreements as to the rhyme of the octave in the Sicilian sonnet depending upon whether the authority chooses the older form or one of the newer.   Since the Sicilian sonnet is a transitional form from the Italian to the Petrarchan, I believe the abbacddc  efefef rhyme scheme with the iambic pentameter line the better choice for this form.

     Petrarch changed the Italian sonnet into one now named after him. It is a fourteen line lyric poem written in iambic pentameter. It has a volta on the ninth line. The octave is the newer  Italian octave with a rhyme scheme of abbaabba. It uses the Sicilian sestet with a rhyme scheme of cdecde. All three forms have the same  format of: octave, line break, sestet with the volta on the ninth line.  All three require the problem stated, a extension of the problem, the volta, and the solution. 

    
     The sonnet is a love poem: love of woman, love of friend, love of country, love of oneself, love of something, but love.