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Petrarchan Sonnet

The Petrarchan sonnet, also known as the Italian sonnet, originated in Italy in the 13th Century and was associated with the Italian poet Petrarch.

It is a sonnet in its classic form and tends to split into two sections, known as octave (eight line stanza) and sestet (six line stanza). The octave has two quatrains, rhyming a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a; the first quatrain presents the theme, the second develops it. The sestet is built on two or three different rhymes, arranged either c-d-e-c-d-e or c-d-c-d-c-d or c-d-e-d-c-e; the first three lines reflect on the theme and the last three lines bring the whole poem to a close.

On His Being Arrived to the Age of Twenty-three

How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, (a)

Stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year! (b)

My hasting days fly on with full career, (b)

But my late spring no bud or blossom shew'th. (a)

Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth, (a)

That I to manhood am arrived so near, (b)

And inward ripeness doth much less appear, (b)

That some more timely-happy spirits indu'th. (a)

Yet be it less or more, or soon or slow, (c)

It shall be still in strictest measure even (d)

To that same lot, however mean or high, (e)

Toward which Time leads me, and the will of Heaven. (d)

All is, if I have grace to use it so, (c)

As ever in my great Task-master's eye. (e)

John Milton

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