Petrarch

Petrarch was a famous Italian poet who lived in the 1300s. He wrote poetry about love and nature, and was so popular that his poetry style was named after him: petrarchan. Petrarchan poetry has a specific structure: it includes two parts, both with 14 lines each. The first 8 lines, called an octave, make up the main point of the poem. There are three 4-line sections that follow called sestets—these help to explain the main idea more. The last two lines of the poem, called a couplet, wrap it up.