Explore the Craft of Writing Poetry Italian Verse
The Canzonetta or Canzonet and Canzonetta Prime are variations of the Canzone with a more definitive frame. It is a 16th century Italian secular composition often with pastoral, irreverent, or erotic themes.
The elements of the Canzonetta or Canzonet are:
at least 2 octaves, made up of 2 quatrains of alternating rhyme.
written with no fixed meter or line length.
composed with a refrain, repeated in L8 of each octave.
rhymed, ababcdcD, efefgdgD.
is called a Canzonetta Prime when the rhyme scheme is ababcbc