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There are two type of Sonnets found in the history of English poetry, and they are Italian or Petrarchan Sonnet and the English or Shakespearean Sonnet. There are found so many basic difference between two types. In a Petrarchan Sonnet generally the theme and the subject matter is based on love and the lady is highly adored with decorative language and rhetoric. But in a Shakespearean Sonnet love is divided into two parties. There is found the worship offered to the poets male friend and the love offered to The Mysterious Lady.
Again technically there are many difference found in the structure of two types of Sonnet. Italian Sonnet is divided in to Octave consisting of 8 lines and Sestet consisting of 6 lines. But in English Sonnet there is never found Octave and Sestet rather each Sonnet of Shakespeare is divided into three quatrains along with a couplet. And finally, in matter of rhyme scheme two types of Sonnet found different Petrarchan Sonnet have five rhymes and Shakespearean Sonnet have seven rhymes and they are -
a b a b, c d c d, e f e f, g g.
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| Shakespeare & Petrarch |
Again technically there are many difference found in the structure of two types of Sonnet. Italian Sonnet is divided in to Octave consisting of 8 lines and Sestet consisting of 6 lines. But in English Sonnet there is never found Octave and Sestet rather each Sonnet of Shakespeare is divided into three quatrains along with a couplet. And finally, in matter of rhyme scheme two types of Sonnet found different Petrarchan Sonnet have five rhymes and Shakespearean Sonnet have seven rhymes and they are -
a b a b, c d c d, e f e f, g g.