Petrarch

  3. between two foes: Between Love and himself.

  4. armor: In a state of readiness.

  in braids and dress: Cf. 29.1–3.

  7–8. mercy / still keeps your bow intact: If hope that she will relent still keeps Love strong enough to make the assault. Cf. 119.28–30.

  9. take vengeance: Redeeming his heart by causing her to fall in love. Cf. poem 94.

  122 SONNET

  An anniversary poem commemorating 6 April 1344, three years after his coronation and at the age of forty.

  1. heavens have revolved: Turning through the signs of the zodiac seventeen times.

  2. first burned: First saw Laura.

  5. the saying is: The Latin proverb “Lupus pilum mutat non mentem.”

  6–7. senses slacken / … intense: This love of his surpasses the sensual.

  8. heavy veil: The body, whose pull draws the soul into shadow. Cf. Virgil, Aeneid VI, 732.

  10. flight: When he looks “on high,” charting his course in soul time. Cf. Cicero, Somnium Scipionis.

  11. I step out: In Dante, Purgatorio XXVI, the souls of the lustful, in particular the love poets, do penance in the wall of flames from which they are careful not to step until their time has come to ascend the mountain.

  13. please these eyes: Appear free and purified of the shadow.

  123 SONNET

  Thinking more about the kind of love he saw in Laura’s eyes reminds him of the truth of what he has heard, that in Paradise such freedom is possible.

  2. mist of love: Cf. Dante, Inferno V, 133, where Francesca describes a similar blushing and paling just before succumbing to love.

  3. nobly was presented: With such majesty through his eyes.

  4. he went up: Her color was matched by his as he paled at what he saw.

  5–6. how in Paradise / one sees: How a virtuous love expresses itself and is instantly perceived by a kindred soul.

  8. but I saw it: Because he believed himself to be the object of her love.

  9–11. compared to what: Cf. Cavalcanti: “Cotanto d’umiltà donna mi pare / Che ciascun’ altra in ver di lei chiamo ira.”

  13. it seemed to me: She spoke not with words but by her expressions, as one communicates in Paradise.

  14. Who takes away: What shadow stands between them?

  124 SONNET

  Illustrating the fragile nature of his illusions in the preceding sonnet, this finds his hope slipping from his grasp.

  4. reached the other shore: Who have died.

  6. of any comfort: Of the solace that comes from being near her.

  foolish mind: Lacking foresight.

  9. the sweet days: His golden age.

  11. half of my course: He has passed the midpoint of his life (referred to as far back as poem 54). The equivocal rhymes volta-volta in lines 2 and 3 create a mirroring effect.

  12. made of diamond: Cf. 30.24 and 51.9.

  but of glass: Like a mirror he holds up to himself. Cf. 105.15.

  14. split down the middle: Disconnect or become regressive because of their inherent weakness.

  125 CANZONE

  Once more she veils herself against him. In the first part of this canzone, language seems to bind itself, denying itself eloquence; but toward the end, as Petrarch turns his thoughts away from his “untuned” feelings to the green shore that has always been his friend, a loosening and flow return to his verse. The poem acts as a prologue to the one to follow, like a rough stone compared with the brilliance he subsequently achieves. The poetry is packed with consonants and with S-impure words that structurally imply denial.

  2. sharp and constant: The pain of his amorous thought is like the continual presence of an arrow in his side. Cf. Dante, Rime, “Così nel mio parlar.”

  3. in the right color: In a poetic mode suited to his feelings.

  6. where he sleeps: In her heart.

  11. stands there: As if apart. The standing figure contrasts with the seated maiden in line 21.

  12. no trace: Dramma, as in every dram of his blood. Cf. Dante, Purgatorio XXX, 46–47: “Not one drop of blood / is left inside my veins that does not throb,” an image taken from Virgil.

  13. flame and fire: Purifying in nature.

  19. natural goodness: The surface harshness of his canzone will conceal the simple truth at its heart.

  21. sits beneath their shade: Love in her heart is shaded by her lowered brow.

  26. for it is crude: Unpracticed, unlovely. Scaltro, which appears only once, is a word containing its own opposite.

  29. no other arms: No defense but love poems.

  30. come and break: Squadre, breaking into four pieces. The word also has the figurative sense of examining a thing very carefully from all angles.

  31. heart… that’s stone: Cf. Dante, Rune, “Così nel mio parlar,” and Inferno VI, 18. Unexpressed grief pools in the heart and petrifies.

  34–35. paints … / and talks: His soul conversing with his memory.

  37. untuned: Unable now to express his thoughts openly, he is “distempered.” Ice and fire are at odds in his heart. Cf. 73.7–15.

  41. tongue untied: In the last stanza his verse was congested with rough words like scaltro, squadre, smalto, sfogarme, siempre, and scorso. Mazzotta relates this passage to St. Augustine’s theory of the inadequacy of language to express forms of desire. Cf. Confessiones I, 7, 2.

  43–44. leads me / to speak: His need is stronger than the obstacles he himself creates with his rough words.

  47. in her face alone: If all she cares for is her surface beauty. Cf. poem 45, where he makes the face of his loved one a metaphor for narcissistic art. In his Summa Theologica St. Thomas Aquinas made the distinction between “perfectio prima” and “perfectio secunda” that may apply here, creating a dynamic between art for art’s sake and its moral purpose.

  49. you, green shore: His taking-off point, the verge of the imagination.

  54. never touched the earth: Never brought earth or flesh to life in such a manner.

  55. marked by hers: Cf. poem 110, where he saw her shadow stamped on the earth.

  60. lovely footprints still: Some new earthly traces.

  63. where it could rest: In some poetic Eden fed by clear, peaceful waters. The expression acquetarsi, with its roots in water, is suggestive of the first line of poem 126. Cf. also pacificato, 114.13.

  67. sweet brightness: Along the “green shore.”

  68. That lovely light: Vago lume; here vago takes its coloration from light. In line 64 (“vague and unsure”), vaga is colored by dubbiosa.

  once struck: The word is meant to wound.

  70–71. roots / in that same ground: In Latin the word for “root” (radix, radice) is related to “foot” (pes, pedis), whose traces he seeks in this landscape. The memory of Laura seated—whether real or imagined—connects him with a lost paradise.

  73. and sometimes made a seat: Sometimes reigned.

  75. no part is lost: Because he reproduces her in grass, flowers, bank, and river.

  76. would be worse: Alluding to original sin. He bends to the mystery.

  79–81. O my poor little thing …: The congedo apologizes for the unpolished verse preceding, as if to a songbird whose wings do not have power enough to soar up and out of the tangled underbrush of the woods. In this manner he looks ahead to poem 126.

  126 CANZONE

  One of the most admired works of Petrarch, this canzone brings the figure of Laura into vivid focus against the background of his memory. Although nearly following the rhyme scheme of poem 125 (the congedo differs slightly), its movement and sound are very different, creating a soft and amorous, at times mournfully sighing effect. Wilkins dates this poem and 125 from Petrarch’s residence in Vaucluse between 1337 and 1341. The canzoni to follow, poems 127–129, he dates to the years 1343–45.

  3. rest her lovely body: Although in line 7 she is fully dressed, early commentators argued over whether she first appears naked in the waters. Castelvetro (1582) thought modesty
would forbid this; Carducci (1899) disagreed. The naked Laura appears as Diana in 23.147–151.

  4. kind branch: The laurel. Its branches are low enough for her to lean against, and “kind” for having supported her.

  5. (I sigh …): Parenthetical exclamations like this appear in the first four stanzas (see lines 15, 33, and 41).

  7. her gown: Cf. 23.34; see also 28.41, referring to santissimo Elicona.

  11. opened my heart: Cf. 23.73, “m’aperse il petto.”

  14. If it … : If fate and the wheeling heavens determine that he should die without having received her mercy.

  17. let grace: By the merciful intervention of some other power.

  18. among you: In this natural scene where Laura opened his heart.

  19. return to its home: To heaven unclothed by the body.

  24. more secluded port: Note the equivocal rhyme in lines 22 and 24. The word porto corresponds to seno in the first stanza and lembo in line 46; that is, it suggests the womb as well as the limits of mother earth.

  26. flee from: The soul might otherwise linger, reluctant to leave the body in an unloved place.

  27. And there will come a time: The tense changes to a present future. Time past and future are omnipresent in this canzone.

  28. well-known place: The word soggiorno (place) suggests pleasure and repose. Cf. Dante, Purgatorio VII, 45.

  29. the lovely animal… tamed: Cf. 23.149: “fera bella et cruda,” and 112.8: “or mansueta or disdegnosa et fera.”

  32. she turns her eyes: Cf. 106.8, where the “sweetest light came spreading from her eyes.”

  38. force open: Her prayers on behalf of this sinner might reverse heaven’s judgment against him. Cf. Dante, Inferno II, 94–96.

  39. her lovely veil: As spring draws her veil across the mourning earth. An abrupt transition follows these words. Cf. 125.49, when just a word or two was sufficient to turn his mind away from the gathering shadows.

  42. flowers in a rain: Heavenly praises.

  43. sitting there: Cf. the past absolute tense of lines 4–9. Here he changes to the imperfect, which flows forth from the past.

  45. now covered: Some sense of covering appears in each stanza (see lines 8,18, and 58 for the words ricoverse, ricopra, and carico). The congedo may provide an explanation with its reference to ornamenti.

  love’s bloom: Cf. Dante, Purgatorio XXX, 28, where Beatrice is seen “within a nebula of flowers.”

  46. on her lap: Lembo signifies margin but also the distance one must go before returning to the womb, or to a merciful God.

  47. on her blond curls: Hair now flowing free rather than braided. She appears to be freshly created, with the voluptuousness of youth.

  48. like pearls: Cf. 325.80, “she was pure pearl enclosed in finest gold.”

  51. lovelike wandering: Intimations of mortality with the spiral movement of that last circling bloom.

  52. Here Love reigns: These words make a sigh like all the world adoring.

  58. filled me with forgetfulness: He was able for a time to transcend travail. Cf. 189.1, “colma d’oblio.”

  60. from the true image: As in poem 119, the essence of Laura, her truth, has become obscured by the dazzling reality of her presence.

  62. how and when … : As if shaking himself awake. Cf. Purgatorio XXXII, 1–3, where Dante is bereft of every other sense but sight when Beatrice reveals herself.

  63. not where I was: In a post-lapsarian Eden.

  65. this bank of grass: The green bank of poem 125 where grows the “lovely branch.”

  66–68. If you …: Petrarch speaks to his canzone as he did in poem 125, having adorned her now with a beauty “worthy” of mankind.

  67. with boldness: Generated by the “flame of love.” Cf. 125.1–3.

  127 CANZONE

  The glorious image of Laura in poem 126 rules the poet’s heart so that its effects are multiplied wherever he goes, near or far. Similar in theme to poem 37, marking another period of separation from Laura, this canzone transforms emotional pain into joy. A numerical base seems to be at work from stanza to stanza, beginning with one–in–a–thousand and progressing to the thousand-in-one of the last stanza.

  1. In that direction: Toward Laura, the “one lady” of line 14. (Quellaparte becomes the plural quante parti in line 89.)

  4. shall be last…first?: Cf. 23.30.

  5. The one: Love.

  6. he dictates with confusion: As if thoughts (verses) pressed on Love in their haste to be expressed.

  7. I shall tell the story: He begins a kind of summation.

  12–14. I say that … : The argument of the canzone is stated in these lines, transfigured by metaphor in stanza 7, and reconnected with his pain in the congedo, like a musical composition.

  16. greatest good of mine: This desire to recreate the divine Laura.

  17. painful: His martyrdom.

  19. in youthful guise: In springtime.

  22. now a lady: The mature donna who has dominion over him.

  23. once the sun has risen: When it is high in the sky, as in summer.

  25. flame of love… high in the heart: When love is most consuming.

  27. step by step retreating: Following the summer solstice the sun sets earlier each day, depriving the day of warmth so that it “laments.”

  28. reached her perfect days: In fall, in a state of equilibrium or maturity, but also in a culminating sense, so that decline must follow.

  29. When I gaze: He turns away mentally from winter and recalls spring, beginning the cycle over. Four seasons become three.

  31. the better stars: The planets that rule in spring.

  32. the green and violets: Green for hope of fulfillment and purple for purity and sacrifice.

  33–34. Love… / was armed: The hope, purity, and spirit of sacrifice revealed to him by Laura.

  35. tender bark: Her outer aspect, the sublime covering that transports her soul through life.

  41. flowered… grew beyond: Bloomed and seeded herself.

  42. sole cause: Her body mirrors the beauty of her soul.

  all my woes: His struggle to reflect that beauty.

  44. snow struck by the sun: Cf. 30.31–39. Here, hills replace the alpine mountain, and the snow covering is light and tenera.

  45. the way sun does on snow: It quickly melts him to tears.

  46. more fair than human: More than humanly beautiful.

  47. which from afar: The closer he comes to her, the more aware he is of her mystery.

  49. between the white and golden: Of snow and sun, face and hair, corresponding to distance and nearness.

  50–51. which no eye / has ever seen: Cf. Paul, I Cor. 2:9, “Neque oculis vidit, neque auris audivit, neque in cor hominis ascendit.”

  54–55. forgetfulness / means nothing: Cf. 126.56.

  55. becomes eternal: Cf. Dante, Paradiso XXXIII, 94–105.

  57–70. I’ve never seen … : This stanza makes three analogies with Laura, “three lovely excellences.”

  58. the wandering stars … air: Planets which become visible as the rain clouds retreat in the night sky.

  59. between the dew and frost: In autumn, when dew freezes between morning and evening.

  62. shadowed by a lovely veil: Cf. poems 11, 38, 52, 59, 72.55–56, and 126.39.

  63. on that day the sky: The day of his first encounter with her.

  67. the light… approaching: Laura, the sun.

  70. all in darkness: The gathering shadows not only are a premonition of death but also suggestive of a dark age in history when Christ’s presence is not felt.

  71. and some vermilion: The Latin double diminutive of the word “worm,” close to putrefaction according to the OED; synonymous with “cochineal.” Cf. Isa. 1:18.

  73. fresh by virgin hands: Cf. Virgil, Aeneid XI, 68: “Qualem virgineo demessum pollice florem.” Or like the flowers gathered by the maiden Proserpina, shadowing loss and ruin. These colors compare with the violet and green of stanza 4.

/>   75–76. far excels…/… it gathers: She is more than the sum of her parts.

  76. those three: Her hair, cheeks, and bosom, whose colors surpass the white and vermilion flowers and the gold of the vase.

  80. slightest breeze: L’òra suggests time, since l’ora means “hour.” Cf. St. Augustine, De Trinitate V, 16–17: “The Spirit is a gift eternally, but has been given in time.”

  83. free in the breeze: Untied. Cf. 29.3 and 121.4

  84. burn so quick: Cf. line 25.

  85–87. count…/ the stars … enclose/the sea: These two examples were drawn from St. Augustine’s De Trinitate (Castelvetro). The all-in-one figure appears in Rom. 5:5–21, where Paul invests in one man, Jesus Christ, all evidence of the grace of God.

  87. strange thought: In the sense of new, unique.

  90. remaining one: Like the sun she gives light without depleting herself, renewing herself perpetually through time.

  93. closed in my steps: Made him part of her. Cf. Wis. of Sol. 7:26–27; Ps. 138.2–13; St. Augustine, Confessiones I, 2–4, VII, 16–19, and X, 33–38 (Durling).

  99. all I say is nothing: Cf. lines 54–55: “so that forgetfulness / means nothing.”

  100. hides in me: About which he remains silent, although all he has said before flows from it.

  105. absence of my heart: Possessed by love.

  106. stay of death: By writing of her beautiful effects.

  128 CANZONE

  In this famous political poem Petrarch pleas with the warring factions in Italy to come to peaceful terms, addressing himself to proud and jealous princes who, in the pursuit of short-term gains, have lost sight of the Roman ideal of civic virtue. Scholars date the canzone’s composition to 1344 or early 1345 at Parma, during a war between the d’Este and Gonzaga families (the latter aligned with the Viscontis) in which Bavarian mercenaries were employed.

  3. your lovely body: As biblical writings personify Israel. The mortal wounds are those of Italy’s fallen, from which blood continually pours. Cf. Dante, Purgatorio VII, 95.

  4. for my sighs to be one: That Petrarch considered this political poem of great significance is confirmed by its language and metaphor, utilizing that of the canzoni surrounding it to very different effect.