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　　Evolved from the Italian “sonetto”， sonnet has beautiful patterns， rigorous rhythm. It is defined as a lyric poem comprising 14 rhyming lines of equal length： iambic pentameters in English. Western scholars generally believe that a Sicily poet in medieval Italy is the first to adopt this kind of form， and has made the strict rules of it. It， together with ballad and lyric， is the most popular genre of Italian lyrics. In the Renaissance Period of Italy， Francesco Petrarch carried on the work of the Sicily poet and his sonnets were artistically better and had significant influence on the development of sonnet. Thus the Italian sonnet is also known as the Petrarchan sonnet. In the early 16th century， sonnet was introduced to Britain. Then Shakespeare， through adapting the pattern made by Petrarch， created the English sonnet（Shakespearean sonnet）. Shakespeare made much more advances on sonnet writing Above all， Shakespeare made some changes in the pattern. It is through the pattern or form that the emotion is expressed. Therefore， the poet must pay a lot of attention to composition of the poem. Thus， this paper tries to analyze the overall beauty of the form of Shakespearean sonnet in comparison to Petrarchan sonnet.
　　 　Part I Introduction
　　Petrarchan sonnet is written in iambic pentameter and is composed of two quatrains and two tercets. The first eight lines are called the octave and the last six the sestet. The rhyme scheme of the octave is usually fixed in an a b b a， a b b a pattern. The sestet may be written in different rhyming schemes， including c d c， c d c， or c d e， c d e. On the aspects of form and meaning， the octave often contains a conflict or dilemma， and the sestet usually offers some sort of resolution. From the octave and the sestet there is a clear shift or turn in thought.
　　Part II A Comparison between Shakespearean sonnet and Petrarchan sonnet