THE Petrarchan sonnet: EXPLAINED
The Petrarchan sonnet, perfected by the Italian Renaissance poet Petrarch, divides 14 lines into two sections: an eight-line
stanza (octave) rhyming ABBAABBA, and a six-line stanza (sestet) rhyming CDCDCD or CDECDE.
What would I miss?
1.
2.
3.
OCTET
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
1.
2.
SESTET
3.
4.
5.
6.
What would I miss?
The rosewater curly hair,
The strut of devil may care,
Or her generous lips to kiss?
Oh, I’d surely be remiss,
If I omitted fashion flare,
Or her 1,000-mile stare,
But really, it’s none of this.
In actuality, what I’ll long for most,
Is how consistently without fail,
she burns the morning toast,
to the color of ancient shale,
and the texture of wooden posts.
That kind of everyday is the holy grail.