Petrarchan conventions
The particular conventions established by Petrarch's sonnets (14th century), including the blazon (cataloguing the beloved's beauty), the paradoxes of love (sweet pain, beautiful cruelty), the lover's anguish, and the sonnet form itself as the vehicle for expressing love. Petrarchan conventions deeply influenced European love poetry.
Real World
Shakespeare's sonnet 18 ('Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?') and Sidney's Astrophil and Stella both use the blazon to catalogue the beloved's beauty, directly inheriting Petrarch's 14th-century conventions and simultaneously questioning them.
Exam Focus
Identify whether a poet follows or subverts Petrarchan conventions — anti-Petrarchism is as important as the conventions themselves for AO2.
How well did you know this?