Petrarch

  57. I burn then: As the moon seems to burn and consume itself in the night sky.

  58. rays from that live sun: Whereas during the day, when his light is nearly eclipsed by Laura’s brilliance, he becomes afraid. He describes the effects of envy and sloth in this passage.

  61. fount in Epirus: Epirus in NW Greece was the site of a shrine to Zeus. Cf. Pliny, Historia naturalis II, 106: “In Dodone Iovis fons, quum sit gelidus et immersas faces extinguat, si extinctae admoveantur accendit.”

  65–66. My soul … : He likens his soul to an unlit torch at the time that he first saw Laura.

  67. by merely coming close: According to the terms he has set out for this canzone, he’s not only approaching Laura but the shrine of Zeus, a god quick to anger.

  69. caught fire: The flames of love describe righteous indignation, the subject of line 75.

  73. virtue fair and frozen: The condition of virtue unignited in the hearts of men, as well as the coldness of Laura.

  75. I feel it: His indignation comes from the heart rather than the head. Cf. Inferno VIII, 43–45, where Virgil praises Dante’s just anger.

  76. Far out beyond: The sixth point, beyond the straits of Gibraltar to the legendary Canary Islands. According to the Voyage of St. Brendan they were the site of Eden, but to Dante, a destination forbidden man to go. Cf. Inferno XXVI, 106–109.

  79. dies laughing: Having drunk too deeply from the joys of love. Tasso in Gerusalemme Liberata made the Canary Islands the site of the enchantress Armida’s garden and the source of laughter (XV, 57).

  he revives: One drinks from the first fountain, dies laughing, and then is brought back to life by drinking from the second. Ariosto’s version of the second in Orlando Furioso was the mountain of reason.

  83. were it not tempered: She gives him the power to unify and to make harmonious these contrary elements.

  85. shades of fame: Now hidden, later revealed.

  87. fullest at the time: On the day of Christ’s crucifixion.

  92. great stone: The mountain that overlooks Vaucluse.

  96. the one destroying him: The image of “virtue fair and frozen.”

  97. he flees: Cf. 28.106–114. In his solitary refuge not far from Avignon he sifts out her harsh meanings, her image always before him. Sasso (“stone,” line 92) is also a figurative expression for the tomb and in Provençal can mean “filter” or “sieve,” a means of purification.

  136 SONNET

  Having covertly confessed himself in poem 135, he emerges from his closed valley with three sonnets attacking the corrupt papal court in the most overt terms. The precise target of Petrarch’s attacks is disputed, but the general object of his scorn was the French court in the period preceding his departure from Provence in 1353. Wilkins dates the sonnets 1345–47. Poems 136, 137, and 138 reportedly were placed on the church’s Index of Forbidden Books from 1564–1722.

  1. May Heaven’s fire: Invoking divine wrath against the whore of Babylon of the Apocalypse, in this instance the papal court at Avignon. Cf. Rev. 17:15; Dante, Inferno XIX, 107, and Purgatorio XXXII, 149.

  tresses: Cf. 29.3 and 121.4 for the word treccie.

  3. streams and acorns: Christ and the Apostles drank from the stream and ate what food lay at hand.

  4. got fat and rich by starving other people: Having abandoned their vows of poverty, the papacy became enormously rich by skimming the cream from the feudal system.

  6. all evil: The pope and his cardinals dominated the social and political as well as the religious affairs of the western world.

  7. slave of wine: Petrarch wrote elsewhere that the court’s love for French wine was a major stumbling block to returning the papacy to Rome.

  9. In all your rooms: Not excepting even the pope’s chamber.

  older men: The cardinals, aging members of the Curia.

  10. romping round: As in a rustic peasant dance (the tresca) with broadly suggestive movements. Cf. Dante, Purgatorio X, 65.

  11. bellows: As in the Dance of Death by Holbein (Carducci).

  12. raised on cushions: Like sultans, that is, infidels.

  13. naked… in thorns: Zingarelli recalls a fresco of Giotto showing Poverty in a shirt, walking among thorns.

  137 SONNET

  He continues his attack on the papal court in less angry, more acid terms.

  1. so filled the sack: Cf. Dante, Inferno VI, 50, “La tua città ch’è piena / d’ invidia sì che già trabocca il sacco.”

  4. Venus and Bacchus: Exclusive worship of whom leads to debauchery.

  instead of Jove and Pallas: Pallas is Minerva, goddess of wisdom, Jove the god of justice.

  6–8. but I see: Lines that have not yet been deciphered, particularly the identity of the “new sultan.” Carducci believed that Petrarch speaks figuratively of a complete takeover of the papacy, with a new pope chosen from the Colonna family. Or Petrarch predicts half-seriously a complete takeover of the papacy by infidel forces, beginning with a Muslim caliph as pope.

  8. into one seat: Uniting empire and papacy under one rule.

  Baghdad: Like Rome, Baghdad was brought low when the caliphate was moved to another city, suggesting that Petrarch means, figuratively, back to Rome, a city presently in ruins.

  9. Her idols shall be scattered: Cf. Isa. 21:9, “Cecidit, cecidit Babylon, et omnia sculptilia deorum eius contrita sunt in terram.”

  10. towers, enemies of Heaven: As was the tower of Babel. Petrarch refers to the luxurious buildings erected by Pope Clement VI in Avignon.

  12–14. Beautiful souls … : Once purified, “Baghdad” will be reborn as Rome, the new Jerusalem, founded on the traditions of the Golden Age.

  138 SONNET

  This sonnet calls down the wrath of God on the papacy’s heresies and fraudulent practices, in particular simony, which Petrarch along with Dante considered the legacy of the Donation of Constantine.

  1. Fountain … dwelling place: Favorite images of Petrarch, normally evocative of Laura.

  2. heresy’s own temple: Suggesting that the Church’s idea of heresy is that which threatens the temple’s wealth and power. Carducci believed that Petrarch alludes to Pope John XXII’s doctrine on the Beatific Vision, wherein the sight of God was denied to the souls of the Just until the Day of Judgment and the resurrection of the body.

  3. once Rome: Once the capital of the pagan world and hence its temple.

  5. foundry of deceit: Cf. Boccaccio, Decameron I, 2.

  6–8. where the good dies … : A new use of antithesis, against all reason and morality. Cf. poem 134.

  9. Founded in pure: The early Church of the Apostles.

  10. founders … horns: They defy the very principles of the original disciples with their devilish pride.

  11. brazen whore!: This and the term “adulterers” in line 12 refer to the sins of simony, the selling of favors of the Church. Cf. Dante, Inferno XIX, 1–4.

  13. Constantine: Cannot undo the damage he wrought. Emperor Constantine I supposedly granted the pope and his successors spiritual and temporal supremacy over Rome, Italy, and the western regions, thereby betraying his imperial trust. Dante placed him in Paradise (XX, 55-60), separating the man from the consequences of his acts.

  14. for Hell has taken: The exact meaning of the reference has eluded commentators because of its laconic syntax and audacity. An alternate reading of folk origin is, “Voi non siete neppur degni che la terra vi sostenga” (Carducci).

  and there he stays: As a great object lesson. In Petrarch’s sixth eclogue, he wrote of Constantine in the Inferno: “In aeternum gemat ille miser, pastoribus aulae qui primus mala dona dedit.”

  139 SONNET

  This and the next two sonnets find the poet returned to his customary preoccupations, his righteous anger having subsided.

  1. wide with desire: In the use of rhymes and in this opening line, the sonnet recalls poem 127, a canzone.

  2. O sweet flock: He addresses the poet friends he left behind in Italy when he returned to Pr
ovence.

  3. Fortune with her birdlime: His obligations to the hated papal state.

  4. far from you: From his most desired goal of sharing in a meeting of minds.

  6. in that open valley: He left his friends in the wide sunny Po valley, where he could speak freely.

  7. most wraps around: Lending protection to the center—Italy—that nurtures his poetry.

  9. the left: Toward the evil that is Avignon.

  he… straight path: His heart, at least, was not forced to turn against its natural bent.

  11. he to … and I : His first desire was the rebirth of Rome as the Holy City (Jerusalem). Yet he was obliged to cross over the sea, back to the pagan papal court he serves (Egypt).

  14. our togetherness is rare: He has always been separated from his heart except for brief periods when events matched his hopes.

  140 SONNET

  Read within the context of the preceding four sonnets, this could be a description of his renewed submission to Church authority after a brief outburst of honest anger against the papal court. For all its disarming charm, its intent seems to be to attack his enemies in a more covert way.

  3. appears all armed: Comes forth in his verse in words of anger.

  4. sets his banner: Makes his mark on the poet’s face as a challenge.

  8. is angry at our boldness: Courtesy, virtue, and truth would have him ply his suit in a more pious manner.

  more than she shows: Suggesting that she responded to his earlier invective with silence.

  9. Love full of fear: This little scene has Love disarmed, reduced to quailing fear by the disapproval of Laura.

  12. What can I do: In his role as Love’s standard-bearer.

  13. stay with him: Remain silent until death.

  14. Who loves well dying: “Controlled by reason, shame and reverence.” Petrarch first used this conceit in poem 5. Cf. also 23.31 and 59.15–17.

  141 SONNET

  The last of the Babylon sonnets, this compares him to the butterfly fatally attracted to light.

  2. foolish butterfly: The adjective semplicetta feigns disparagement of his verse, which is only apparently simple.

  seeking the light: To find comfort within flame, or the eternal beyond the temporal.

  3. someone’s eyes: Of a large, unthinking person who brushes away the annoying insect. Here “someone” blocks the butterfly’s path to light.

  4. makes the other cry: Nonetheless he has dealt a minor injury to those eyes.

  6. so much sweetness: The eyes are the source and the entryway of spiritual love.

  8. who discerns: The truth behind those eyes that he has brushed against with his wings inflames him to further death-defying endeavors.

  10. I will die from it: Veracemente (truthfully), as will become clear in the poems to follow.

  11. such pain: Turned inside out, the line suggests that he no longer intends to fight against the truth of the living hell where good dies. Cf. 138.4–8.

  12. but so mellifluously: Like the butterfly seeking sweet warmth, he will return to writing in the language of love.

  13. mourn for her wrong: He regrets having given offense to her and bows to her greater power.

  14. my soul, blind: Without the guidance of reason, making a descent into the region of death in the search for a new kind of truth.

  142 SESTINA

  He returns in this sestina to his only refuge, the laurel, but in a new direction, onto “another path.” More than ever he demonstrates in his rhymes multiple meanings for significant and emotionally charged terms.

  2. merciless light: From Venus, because of the relentless ardor he felt for Laura in Avignon.

  4. snow by then: Laura showed signs of yielding.

  5. loving aura: The spring breeze that renews thoughts of their first encounter.

  6. grass and branches: To lyric poetry and to the support of the virtuous immortals who inspire it.

  8. the wind moved greener leaves: Vento is the wind of Juno, the force of circumstance; the leaves are a promise of hope for regeneration.

  11. shade of hills: Cf. the poggi of 129.5.

  12. tree most loved: The laurel was most valued by the gods for being pure, strong, and evergreen.

  13. from Heaven: She has provided him with immunity to the lightning of Jove. In this case heaven is the visible universe and Jove the temporal authority.

  15. woods … hills: His travels have taken him through various stages of understanding of the nature of thought. Cf. poem 129.

  16. trunk or branches: Other sources of inspiration besides Laura. The trunk has served as a column of support, perhaps alluding to the church fathers.

  17. supernal light: The light of the visible heavens.

  18. change their worth: Demonstrate their fickleness.

  19. firmer all the more: More grounded in his original faith in an everlasting source.

  20. the call I heard from Heaven: Through his ears he received God’s message, and almost simultaneously was able to see the sweet and clear light. Cf. Dante, Purgatorio XXXI, 13: “only by ears with eyes could it be heard.”

  26. won and changed: All the works of nature yield eventually to time.

  27. I beg the pardon: An appeal for forgiveness to poetry in general for the departure he has taken.

  29. the sticky branches: From which he (the caught bird) fled in poems 136—141.

  30. see the light: The light of line 21 shining like a star within sunlight. Cf. Dante, Paradiso VIII, 16–21.

  32. the greatest hills: Seeking justice he attempted to scale mountains before he was ready. “Happily” implies his naivete.

  34. place and season: A corrupt era requires a new orientation.

  35. another path: The path of Orpheus, eventually leading through the Underworld in a winding descent.

  38. another climb to Heaven: Some believe he shows penitence and new resolve to climb the purgatorial mountain. His turning toward an entirely new path, however, suggests he first intends to look inward, descending into the dark regions of the self.

  39. other branches: The cross.

  143 SONNET

  Believed to have been written to a poet (in the voi form of courteous respect), this sonnet weaves themes from the poetry of Guido Guinizelli together with those of Dante from Inferno V.

  1. When I hear: Cf. Inferno V, 100: “Love, quick to kindle in the gentle heart.” This line from Dante recalls Guinizellis “Al cor gentil rempaira sempre amore,” a poem Dante echoed himself in the Vita nuova in “Amore e ’l cor gentil sono una cosa.”

  2. inspires in his flock: In love poets, those who follow a particular school.

  4. dead soul: One whose fires are “spent.”

  5. lovely lady present: The very phrase “la bella donna” awakens the amorous thought in him, recalling Guinizelli’s “Al cor gentil.”

  7. appearing so that often: She emerges adorned with love.

  8. but sighs: He finds in love poetry more inspiration than comes to him from the sound of the church bell ringing for prayers.

  12. too much joy: Soverchio piacer, the rule of Venus.

  13. stopping my tongue: Her beauty so awes him. Atraversa (stopping), an atypical spelling, reveals the Latin word for “dark” (atra) and for “turning” (versa).

  14. what she is like inside: To reveal what is written within requires a new language, a new topology (other leaves, light, hills, and branches, as he wrote in poem 142).

  144 SONNET

  He summons up his vision of the past for his friend Sennuccio del Bene, but with new effects, new colors.

  1–4. I never saw … : Her face once pierced through clouds and storms like the morning star at sunrise.

  3. rainbow: Arco reappears in line 12 as the drawn bow of Love.

  4. so many colors: Cf. Virgil, Aeneid IV, 700–701: “Iris croceis per coelum roscida pennis mille trahens varios adverso sole colores.”

  6. flaming color changed: Her face and his at times had paled, at times had b
lushed, Cf. 140.1–2.

  7. I am spare with words: He chooses them carefully, as one who selects from a scarce supply (nel mio dirparco).

  8. can be compared: A demonstration of his desire to linger over her memory is this loving comparison between Laura and the dawn of a new day.

  9–11. I saw Love … : Looking at her light cast all other beauty into shadow.

  12. with his bow drawn: Love, but also Laura/Christ.

  145 SONNET

  Often numbered among the anniversary poems because of its reference in line 14 to a period of fifteen years, this sonnet insists on the ineradicable fact of his flawed humanity. Its humorous tone suggests that it was directed to a fellow poet.

  1. Put me where sun can kill: He divides the earth into five zones, the first of which is the torrid zone. Cf. Horace (Odes I, 22) and Virgil (Eclogues X, 64).

  2. can conquer him: The sun, as in the two polar regions.

  3. mild and light: In the temperate zones, Cancer and Capricorn.

  4. where those give him to us: The setting Sun gives his cart and horses to the Hours while he rests during the night.

  9. in abyss: The vastness of the sea or the deepest regions of Hell.

  10. low and swampy: Cf. poem 66 and Dante, Inferno VI.

  13. I’ll be: However he may attempt to purify himself, some things never change.

  14. sigh trilustrally: He has completed a fifteen-year period of expiation and purification. The lustrum in Roman times gave absolution to citizens in good standing every five years in the month of May.

  146 SONNET

  This sonnet is striking for its apparent simplicity, but it is composed of words whose etymological roots have traveled in many directions.

  1. O noble soul: Laura.

  glowing virtue warm: This is “Another light” emanating from her, more the patina of gold than the white light that dazzles.

  2. I line so many pages: In order to vaunt her name. Among the many senses of the root of vergo is that of chastising.