It consists of 14 lines in standard sonnet forms followed by a coda (Latin cauda meaning "tail", from which the name is derived).
Burchiello's "popularity was not limited to Florence or the fifteenth century" and "in the sixteenth century Italian Renaissance" ... there were "several narratives about the poet-barber written by well-known figures such as Antonfrancesco Grazzini, Anton Francesco Doni, Angelo Colocci, and Tommaso Costo.
[61] [If I had Burchiello's wit, I would willingly write you a sonnet; For never did I have a theme and subject More sweet, more pleasant, more beautiful.
][2] According to the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry, the form is most frequently used for satire, such as the most prominent English instance, John Milton's "On the New Forcers of Conscience Under the Long Parliament.
Hopkins explored the possibility of such a coda in a series of letters exchanged with Robert Bridges, from whom he learned of the centrality of Milton's example in the form.