The type of sonnet which "HOW DO I LOVE THEE'? is Petrarchan Sonnet
Petrarchan Sonnet
The Petrarchan sonnet consists of 14 lines and follows a specific rhyme scheme.
The poem "How Do I Love Thee?" is a sonnet written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. It belongs to the category of sonnets known as the Petrarchan sonnet, also referred to as the Italian sonnet.
In "How Do I Love Thee?", Browning adheres to this structure. The rhyme scheme of a Petrarchan sonnet typically follows the pattern ABBAABBA for the first eight lines, known as the octave. The remaining six lines, called the sestet, can have various rhyme schemes, but in this poem, Browning uses CDCDCD.
The first eight lines (the octave) present a question: "How do I love thee?" The speaker then proceeds to answer this question in the following six lines (the sestet), providing various ways in which their love is expressed.