Sonnet 18

The term sonnet comes from the Italian sonetto, which means little song. This meaning is emphasized in how Petrarch’s sonnet sequence (made of mostly sonnets, but also other poems) is called the Canzoniere, or songbook. The sonnet form used by Petrarch, the Petrarchan sonnet, is 14 lines long, which can be divided into the octave (eight lines) and the sestet (six lines). The octave can also be broken up into two parts—two quatrains, or four-line sections. The sestet is often considered in two parts as well—two tercets, or three-line sections. Between the octave and the sestet is the volta, or turn, where the poem takes a different path of thought.

In the original Italian, Petrarch uses the rhyme scheme ABBA ABBA CDE CDE for “Sonnet 18.” While some translators, like A. S. Kline, attempt to keep this lineation (line structure), much of the rhyme does not translate. Other translators, such as Robert M. Durling, use prose broken up into four sections, approximating the two quatrains and two tercets rather than the lineation of Petrarch’s individual lines. The meter of Petrarch’s Italian is different from the meters used in English and requires understanding of the language to fully understand.

The sonnet tradition generally includes a speaker who is the poet, and referred to as the lover, who writes to the person they love, referred to as the beloved. The “you” of the sonnet is often the beloved. Due to this pronoun use, reading sonnets is like overhearing a conversation between lovers. Petrarch’s sonnets feature a woman who does not return the speaker’s love, dubbed a cruel Petrarchan mistress. This element of unrequited love, and the speaker’s inability to get over the beloved, is central to Petrarch’s Canzoniere.