Poetry from
Poet Alison Chisholm guides you through the perenially popular sonnet form
Alison Chisholm
POETRY PRIMER
The SONNET has been around since the thirteenth century, and has remained one of the most enduring and endearing of poetry forms. It is thought to have been devised by Italian Giacomo de Lentini of the Sicilian school somewhere around 1220-1230, and rediscovered by Guittone d’Arezzo (born 1230) the founder of the Tuscan school. This form of sonnet is better known under the name of a later Italian poet, Francesco Petrarca.
From its creation, the form has had fourteen lines, and traditionally iambic pentameter is used throughout. The poem is divided into two almost equal parts, with an octave of eight lines followed by a sestet of six. Between the two is the volta, a slight turn in approach. The rhyme scheme is: a b b a a b b a followed by various options in the rhyming of the sestet, such as c d e c d e or c d c d c d. Some sonnets give the sestet as a separate stanza, with white space between the two sections.