Petrarchan

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. Of or pertaining to a poetic form consisting of an octave followed by a sestet that often conveys themes of unattainable desire
2. Characterized by a two-part structure in poetry, which includes eight lines followed by six lines typically exploring love and yearning
3. Connected with the sonnet style featuring an eight-line stanza followed by a six-line stanza, usually expressing themes of love or longing

Etymology: Petrarchan takes its name from Francesco Petrarca, the fourteenth-century Italian poet known in English as Petrarch, whose sonnets set the pattern for a whole tradition of love poetry. The adjective is simply his name with the suffix "-an", meaning "of or relating to", so a Petrarchan sonnet is one in the manner of Petrarch. The form he made famous divides into an octave of eight lines, rhyming "abbaabba", followed by a sestet of six lines that turns the argument, often with a different rhyme scheme. Petrarch wrote his poems in Italian, largely in honour of Laura, a woman he saw in Avignon and never won, so the verse became the vehicle for longing, admiration and frustrated desire that later poets copied. English writers took up the form in the sixteenth century, most notably Thomas Wyatt, who adapted Petrarch's sonnets, and the label "Petrarchan" came to name the tradition of idealised, unrequited love they carried with them.