Sicilian Sonnet
Quick answer: The Sicilian sonnet, the oldest sonnet form: ABABABAB octave, CDCDCD sestet, its origins at Frederick II's court, and how to write one well today.
Every sonnet in every language descends from this one. In the 1230s, at the cosmopolitan Sicilian court of Emperor Frederick II, a notary named Giacomo da Lentini began writing fourteen-line poems that split into eight and six. Scholars generally credit him with inventing the sonnet outright, apparently by extending the strambotto, a Sicilian folk stanza, and the earliest surviving examples carry his name.
The Sicilian sonnet is the original model: an octave rhyming ABABABAB and a sestet rhyming CDCDCD. No envelope rhymes, no couplet, just two sounds swinging like a pendulum for eight lines, then two more for six. Petrarch's later ABBA pattern displaced it, but the ancestor form still has virtues of its own.
The court where the sonnet was born
Frederick II's court gathered poets, translators and scientists from Latin, Greek, Arabic and Norman traditions, and its poets wrote in the Sicilian vernacular rather than Latin, a radical choice that Dante later praised. The Sicilian School flourished from roughly 1230 to 1266, and its poems travelled north to Tuscany, where copyists converted the dialect and poets like Guittone d'Arezzo, then Dante and Petrarch, remade the form. The alternating octave hardened into the enveloped ABBAABBA, which Italian ears found richer. The older pattern survived as a variant, and English poets have occasionally revived it since.
Rules and proportions
The form's demands are simple to state and surprisingly stern in English, which is poor in rhymes.
Writing one in English
The octave is the challenge: four rhymes on each of two sounds will expose any weak choice. Pick your A and B sounds the way a climber picks handholds, testing each for weight. Sounds like 'air', 'ay', 'ee' and 'ight' carry dozens of common words; sounds like 'love' or 'world' will strand you by line five. The alternating pattern creates a rocking, incantatory motion, so lean into it: parallel phrases, repeated sentence shapes and litany suit this form unusually well. Turn at line 9 as the Italians did, and let the sestet's fresh sounds feel like a key change.
What it suits, and how it goes wrong
The pendulum rhymes suit chant, lament, lullaby and obsession, any poem where recurrence is the emotional point. It is also a natural choice for poems about origins and ancestry, given its history.
Beginners ruin it with rhyme-driven padding: by the fourth A word, desperation produces lines that exist only to end correctly. If you catch yourself writing a line backwards from its rhyme, swap to a slant rhyme or change the sound entirely before drafting on.
What poets can take from this
- Choose octave rhyme sounds with at least eight everyday candidates each.
- Use the rocking ABAB motion deliberately: repetition, litany, chant.
- Place a clear volta at line 9; the old form expects it.
- Resist any closing couplet; end on argument rather than chime.
- Draft the sestet first if the octave intimidates you; six lines teach the method gently.
Try it yourself
Write a Sicilian sonnet spoken by someone keeping a night vigil, letting the alternating rhymes rock like waves against the poem's single worry.
Questions
What is the rhyme scheme of a Sicilian sonnet?
ABABABAB for the octave and CDCDCD for the sestet, with CDECDE as a common sestet variant. It uses alternating rhymes throughout and no couplet.
Is the Sicilian sonnet really the first sonnet?
Yes, as far as records show. Giacomo da Lentini at Frederick II's Sicilian court in the early thirteenth century is generally credited with inventing the fourteen-line form that Petrarch later refined.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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