Do you remember?

The Petrarchan sonnet is an original Italian sonnet form in which the sonnet's rhyme scheme divides the poem's 14 lines into two parts, an octave and a sestet. This form was used in the earliest English sonnets by Wyatt.

Wyatt firstly tried to follow the traditional scheme but because of some metrical problems he changed the rhyme scheme.

Comparison between Petrarchan and Wyatt's sonnet:

 Wyatt's XIX and Petrarch's 189 sonnet is essentially about the same thing. To analyse better this sonnet, you should know that Petrarch and Wyatt were obsessed over their respective loves. For Petrarch, it was the unattainable woman Laura, and for Wyatt, it was Anne Boleyn (one of Henry VIII's mistresses)

The main differences between the Petrarchan and Wyatt's sonnet are:

Wyatt's word choice gives you a pessimistic point of view. You can see this by the plural at line two "winter nights", that seems the events that are happening lasts for more nights. Petrarch instead uses the singular. Another example for Wyatt's pessimistic view is in the second stanza where Petrarch describes each oar "scorn the tempest" and in Wyatt's sonnet he uses the word "death". Scorn is definitely far from death, thus that is another example for Wyatt's pessimistic feelings.

In addition to that the words used are very different and as a consequence the meaning changes. Going back to the first stanza, Petrarch describes his enemy as sitting, but in Wyatt's translation the enemy is "steereth" the ship. All that shows you an calm and optimistic Petrarch and in opposition an agitated and pessimistic Wyatt. Even the sound level confirm that.

Going on analysing you have:

At line seven you can see that Wyatt has a negative point of view, because he uses "an endless wind" and Petrarch uses the form "a wind", also not endless, the action is in Wyatt's translation much more pessimistic too, than in Petrarch, who simply uses the more passive form "break" to describes what happens to his sails.

In the third stanza, Petrarch uses the weather conditions to describes his feelings. He describes his situation as a "rain of weeping and a mist of disdain". "Rain of weeping" means that it is not so much raining. "A mist" usually clears up after a while and these underlines positivity of Petrarch.

Wyatt explains his situation as a "rain of tears" and "a cloud of dark disdain" Wyatt's word choice and the sound gives you the idea this will never end. Both Petrarch and Wyatt write about the effects this storm has on the ship. Another key difference is in the final line of the sonnet. Petrarch says that he "begins to despair of the port", while Wyatt "remains despairing of the port"

This proves that Wyatt has been pessimistic all the time and he remains in despair. Only now Petrarch begins to feel the pessimisms that Wyatt is feeling. The port can be seen as a metaphor for the final destination of Petrarch and Wyatt's feelings.