The Petrarchan sonnet, also known as the Italian sonnet, is a sonnet named after the Italian poet Francesco Petrarca, although it was not developed by Petrarca himself, but rather by a string of Renaissance poets.

Filters. A sonnet containing an octave with the rhyme scheme abbaabba and a sestet following any of various patterns such as cdecde or cdcdcd. noun.

: a sonnet consisting of an octave rhyming abba abba and a sestet rhyming in any of various patterns (such as cde cde or cdc dcd) — called also Petrarchan sonnet.

A Petrarchan lover is melodramatic, self-consciously suffering and has given himself up to the power of his mistress. At the start of Romeo and Juliet, this is the character type that Shakespeare is making fun of when Romeo is drooping all over the stage for the great love of his life… Rosaline.

Romeo is initially presented as a Petrarchan lover, a man whose feelings of love aren’t reciprocated by the lady he admires and who uses the poetic language of sonnets to express his emotions about his situation. As the play progresses, Romeo’s increasing maturity as a lover is marked by the change in his language.

Juliet Capulet is a young and innocent teenage girl, but she is also decisive, passionate and headstrong. When the audience first meets Juliet, it is at her father’s party. Here, she meets Romeo and flirts with him, not knowing he is a Montague.

She has chosen life-long celibacy, so Romeo can never be with her. A specific reason for his love for Rosaline is never given. However, Romeo does mention to Benvolio that Rosaline is beautiful (“She is too fair, too wise, wisely too fair”) in Act I, scene 1, so his infatuation may just be skin deep.