Poetry Dicussion Question
Define an octave and sestet as it relates to the sonnet and then identify the octave and sestet in Petrarch’s poem “Upon the Breeze….” No plagiarism please
Petrarch: Sonnet 90
Upon the breeze she spread her golden hair
that in a thousand gentle knots was turned
and the sweet light beyond all radiance burned
in eyes where now that radiance is rare;
and in her face there seemed to come an air
of pity, true or false, that I discerned:
I had love’s tinder in my breast unburned,
was it a wonder if it kindled there?
She moved not like a mortal, but as though
she bore an angel’s form, her words had then
a sound that simple human voices lack;
a heavenly spirit, a living sun
was what I saw; now, if it is not so,
the wound’s not healed because the bow goes
