A Petrarchan sonnet is a 14-line poem divided into an eight-line octave and a six-line sestet. The octave usually sets up a problem, question, or scene, and the sestet responds with a turn in thought, often called the volta. Traditional Petrarchan sonnets usually rhyme abbaabba in the octave, while the sestet varies more freely, often using patterns such as cdecde or cdcdcd.
Example
The rain kept tapping on the windowpane,
The streetlamps blurred to rings of yellow fire;
I counted all the hours of my desire,
And heard the night repeat my grief again.
At dawn, the clouds broke open after rain;
The empty chair no longer felt so dire;
I learned that even loss can cool like fire,
And morning mends what darkness cannot chain.
Related Definitions
[n] a sonnet consisting of an octave with the rhyme pattern abbaabba, followed by a sestet with the rhyme pattern cdecde or cdcdcd