The Italian sonnet can be also known as the Petrarchan Sonnet. Its named after Francesco Petrarch he is recognized as the person that developed this style of sonnet. Sonnets were very popular and were used by poets who wanted to impress nobility.
Sonnets kept most of the original themes that the Italian sonnets included, but other writers created their own form of sonnets. This is why we have the Shakespearean, and the Spenserian sonnet. Toward the 16th century sonnets were now as popular, and the were use mainly to poke fun of things or to show a poets cleverness in his writing.
We know the general rules in each sonnet
The Italian Sonnet (Petrarchan) has 14 lines. they are grouped in a 8 line unit and 6 line unit.
In the English Sonnet ( Shakespearean) there is 14 lines and they are grouped in 3 quatrains. Which a couplet at the end to emphasis the main point of the sonnet.
The Spenserian is similar to the english, but the rhymes scheme is alot harder for example.
ABAB BCBC CDCD EE.
Here is an example of an Italian poem with the rhyme schemes
Oh His Blindness
When I consider how my light is spent (a)
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, (b)
And that one talent which is death to hide, (b)
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent (a)
To serve therewith my Maker, and present (a)
My true account, lest he returning chide; (b)
"Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?" (b)
I fondly ask; but Patience to prevent (a)
That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need (c)
Either man's work or his own gifts; who best (d)
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state (e)
Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed (c)
And post o'er land and ocean without rest; (d)
They also serve who only stand and wait." (e)
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, (b)
And that one talent which is death to hide, (b)
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent (a)
To serve therewith my Maker, and present (a)
My true account, lest he returning chide; (b)
"Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?" (b)
I fondly ask; but Patience to prevent (a)
That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need (c)
Either man's work or his own gifts; who best (d)
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state (e)
Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed (c)
And post o'er land and ocean without rest; (d)
They also serve who only stand and wait." (e)
By: John Milton
Shakespearean Sonnet
et me not to the marriage of true minds (a)
Admit impediments, love is not love (b)*
Which alters when it alteration finds, (a)
Or bends with the remover to remove. (b)*
O no, it is an ever fixed mark (c)**
That looks on tempests and is never shaken; (d)***
It is the star to every wand'ring bark, (c)
Whose worth's unknown although his height be taken. (d)***
Love's not time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks (e)
Within his bending sickle's compass come, (f)*
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, (e)
But bears it out even to the edge of doom: (f)*
- If this be error and upon me proved, (g)*
- I never writ, nor no man ever loved. (g)*
William Shakespeare
And the Spenserian sonnet
Happy ye leaves! whenas those lily hands, (a)
Which hold my life in their dead doing might, (b)
Shall handle you, and hold in love's soft hands, (a)
Like captives trembling at the victor's sight. (b)
And happy lines on which, with starry light, (b)
Those lamping eyes will deign sometimes to look,(c)
And read the sorrows of my dying sprite, (b)
Written with tears in heart's close bleeding book. (c)
And happy rhymes! bathed in the sacred brook (c)
Of Helicon, whence she derived is, (d)
When ye behold that angel's blessed look, (c)
My soul's long lacked food, my heaven's bliss. (d)
Leaves, lines, and rhymes seek her to please alone, (e)
Whom if ye please, I care for other none. (e)
Which hold my life in their dead doing might, (b)
Shall handle you, and hold in love's soft hands, (a)
Like captives trembling at the victor's sight. (b)
And happy lines on which, with starry light, (b)
Those lamping eyes will deign sometimes to look,(c)
And read the sorrows of my dying sprite, (b)
Written with tears in heart's close bleeding book. (c)
And happy rhymes! bathed in the sacred brook (c)
Of Helicon, whence she derived is, (d)
When ye behold that angel's blessed look, (c)
My soul's long lacked food, my heaven's bliss. (d)
Leaves, lines, and rhymes seek her to please alone, (e)
Whom if ye please, I care for other none. (e)
websites
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnet#Italian_.28Petrarchan.29_sonnet
http://www.lima.ohio-state.edu/dburks/201sonnet.htm
