<P> The Petrarchan sonnet is a sonnet form not developed by Petrarch himself, but rather by a string of Renaissance poets . Because of the structure of Italian, the rhyme scheme of the Petrarchan sonnet is more easily fulfilled in that language than in English . The original Italian sonnet form divides the poem's 14 lines into two parts, the first part being an octave and the second being a sestet . </P> <P> The rhyme scheme for the octave is typically abbaabb a . The sestet is more flexible . Petrarch typically used cdecde or cdcdcd for the sestet . Some other possibilities for the sestet include cddcdd, cddece, or cddccd (as in Wordsworth's "Nuns Fret Not at Their Convents Narrow Room" poem). This form was used in the earliest English sonnets by Wyatt and others . For background on the pre-English sonnet, see Robert Canary's web page, The Continental Origins of the Sonnet . In a strict Petrarchan sonnet, the sestet does not end with a couplet (since this would tend to divide the sestet into a quatrain and a couplet). However, in Italian sonnets in English, this rule is not always observed, and cddcee and cdcdee are also used . </P>

What is the structure of an italian sonnet