What’s a Petrarchan sonnet?

The Petrarchan sonnet, named after Italian poet Francesco Petrarca, was introduced to England by Sir Thomas Wyatt in the 1500s. It consists of two stanzas with 14 lines and a rhyming system of abba, abba, cde, cde. Petrarch wrote about unattainable love, inspiring the first generation of English sonnets. The Shakespearean sonnet was later developed […]

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