Petrarch

by Mark Musa

  hidden to all others: About this deepest part of his heart, Laura told him to be silent in 23.74.

  5. I have suffered: Endured in her service.

  7. unaware that I am there: He lags behind, while Love surges (sorgi) ahead, unmindful of him.

  9–11. I do see … : He knows the goal—Laura’s loving eyes—toward which he struggles over mountains and passes.

  13. consumed with loving well: Love is contented as long as he dies following the right path. Cf. 140.14 and note.

  164 SONNET

  But when night falls a different struggle begins, full of grief and anger.

  3. her car of stars: The constellations wheeling quietly in their course.

  7. war is my state: A conflict between the spur and the rein.

  full of grief and anger: Cf. Virgil, Aeneid IV, 522–31 and 136–41, when Dido tossed on her bed with rage against Aeneas.

  8. the thought of her: Laura as an object of contemplation pacifies him; as an achievable objective she puts him at war.

  9. clear and living font: The source of wisdom.

  11. one hand alone: Laura’s.

  13. a thousand times a day: Because his wound continues to be healed by forgetfulness, then reinflicted whenever he thinks of her. Cf. Bernard de Ventadorn, Non es Meravilha, “Cen vetz mor lo jorn de dolor / E revin de joi autras cen.”

  14. from my salvation: The end of his war, linking him with lines 1–4 and sleep.

  165 SONNET

  From the darkness of the preceding sonnet with its undertone of torment, he moves forward into morning.

  1. As soon as: Laura emerges into the clearing like the very first maiden.

  3–4. a force…/ renews: Cf. Venus in Hesiod, Theogony 194–95: “and grass grew up about her beneath her shapely feet.”

  6. does not deign: Love chooses only the worthiest for his target.

  7. fair eyes rain: Like the shower of sweetness in 72.37—45.

  9. with her walk: He praises Laura in motion, adding this to her other beauties.

  10. accord these words: Move in graceful harmony.

  11. slow: Deliberate, poised, thoughtful.

  12. those four sparks: Her walk, look, words and gestures. Cf. 55.9.

  not from them alone: Her many other attributes have been praised elsewhere, for example, in poem 157.

  14. I have become a nightbird: Dazzled by her fourfold light. He may refer to himself as the cuckoo, a bird that appropriates other birds’ nests.

  166 SONNET

  This self-mocking sonnet explains why he has turned from the language of the ancients to love poetry in the vernacular. It was probably a response to an anonymous poem, using the same rhymes, beginning “voi mi negate la virtù che nunca” (Carducci). Its rhyme scheme in the tercets is called “oblique.”

  1. stay in the cave: Had not left study and contemplation to wander in exile. Before he became the sun god, Apollo was worshipped for his oracles at the shrine at Delphi on Mount Parnassus. In other writings, Vaucluse was Petrarch’s spelunca.

  3. Florence… have its poet: Its epic poet writing in the Latin language, as Petrarch had set out to be. His allusion to Florence was probably not meant to disparage Dante but to make excuses for himself, to explain why he, Petrarch the imposter, had not risen to the level of the ancients.

  4. Verona, Mantua, and Arunca: Birthplaces of Catullus, Virgil, and Juvenal.

  5. springs with reeds: Fresh, meaningful growth, adaptable to love, as in 50.37.

  6. another planet: Venus.

  8. thistles and thorns: Stunted growths from the wasteland; also burrs and prickles that annoy and stick to anyone who passes.

  hooked scythe: Death’s blade.

  9. The olive tree: Sacred to Minerva.

  11. at one time: In the age of Catullus, Juvenal, and Virgil.

  12. fault or my misfortune: Lack of genius or the fault of the age.

  13. all good fruit: Cf. 142.36.

  14. eternal Jove: God.

  167 SONNET

  Guided by love, Laura sings, and he is transported by her divine sweetness.

  1. to the ground: In pity.

  3–4. voice/… so divine: With heavenly grace. Cf. 166.14.

  6. changed so there: Her song has the power to alter his thoughts, redirect his desires.

  7. the final plunder: The ultimate ravishment—death.

  8. die so well: In a manner consonant with her song.

  9. But sound which binds: The soul holds back in reverie, captive to that sound. Cf. Dante, Purgatorio II, 106–14.

  12–13. this way I live … spool of life: Binding on the one hand his senses to her sound and on the other freeing his mind to her words, as if she were the fate Lachesis measuring out the span of his life.

  14. heaven’s only siren: In Plato’s myth of Er (Republic X), the sirens of all the individual planets governed the harmony of the spheres, but Laura’s singing combines them all in one.

  168 SONNET

  He grows old in his hope, still made articulate by desire.

  1. that sweet thought: The amoroso pensiero. Cf. 127.99–106.

  2. a confidant of old: Secretario, the thought he shares with Laura through the medium of her eyes. The conceit was used by Andrea Capellanus in De amore, where ultimately the secretarius (in this case Petrarch’s thought) betrayed the lover in the Court of Love by citing his shortcomings.

  4. hope for now: For a corresponding love in Laura.

  5. at times a lie: Betraying his trust by failing at times to be precise in his wording. Laura, too, as she is identified with Love, has deceived him.

  10. the time that contradicts: Stagion, the season. The mirror doesn’t lie: winter is coming.

  13. does not change: The season for burning (etate) is not over, nor has he lost hope that she, also aging, continues to share his love.

  14. I do fear: His fear a self-corrective that holds the secret thought in sight.

  169 SONNET

  Laura, love’s enemy, appears here armed with sighs. The sonnet disturbed early commentators for its departures from the usual courtly protocol.

  2. go the world alone: Strike out in a completely new direction where no poet has gone before.

  4. whom I should flee: The vengeful side of Laura.

  5. so sweet and hard: She reflects the pitilessness the poet is resolved to explore in the same way that he explored her beauty.

  7. army of armed sighs: Stuolo (army) appears only once in the Canzoniere.

  8. Love’s enemy and mine: For her imperviousness to earthly temptation.

  10. cloudy… brow: Obscuring her eyes, preventing any prediction about the future.

  12. collect my soul: Ready it for confession.

  14. I dare not begin: Fear overtakes him. Cf. Arnaut Daniel, “Sols sui”: “Qu’ades ses lieis dic a lei cochos motz; pois can la vei, no sai dir, tant l’ai que dire” (Zingarelli).

  170 SONNET

  Occasionally reversing roles, he goes on the assault against his enemy; but a look at her eyes will deprive him of the power to speak.

  1. fair and kind: semblante umano, a high compliment for Petrarch. Cf. 238.12.

  2. my faithful guides: His eyes.

  3. to assail: To speak his heart.

  5. thought is emptied: Seeming vain and pointless to him.

  8. the only one who can: Love.

  10. could understand: Although Laura has always read the depths of his heart, his words of love have lent themselves to misinterpretation.

  11. so weak and so unsteady: The words tremante e fioco seem to illustrate the sense of these lines and of the tercet that follows: tremante because it vacillates between laughter and tears, and floco because it literally weakens the flame (foco) with its “i.”

  12. a burning love: Caritate, a different kind of love.

  13. steal his breath: Cause his words to lose power in its spreading light. Cf. the “ray” of pity in 169.9.

  14. how he burns: Arde, speaking of his own infer
ior love.

  171 SONNET

  Here his imagery is forceful, both rough and beautiful in sense as well as sound, with an imbalance he corrects in the final tercet.

  1–4. hard and lovely arms … : He finds himself caught between two extremes that overwhelm him, forcing him to be silent.

  3. my suffering he doubles: A spiritual as well as a physical suffering.

  5. burn the Rhine: The “frozen Rhine” may be a metaphor for the German character and may suggest a political message in this sonnet.

  6. break its… icy ridge: Melt the barriers thrown up by the force of the river waters.

  7. so equal: A phrase that corresponds to the doubling of line 3.

  8. pleasing others: Corresponding to line 4. When he has spoken out he has pleased his audience but earned her disdain.

  11. is marble: His wit and skill have failed to soften her.

  13. dark glances: For sembiante oscuro, cf. the sembiante umano and caritate of poem 170.

  14. my sweet sighs: Brave defiance, worded so that euphony resists the harshness of her aspect.

  172 SONNET

  He accuses Laura of envy.

  1. O Envy … enemy of virtue: This personification derives from Ovid, Metamorphoses II, 760 ff. Cf. also Cicero, Rhetorica IV: “O virtutis comes invidia, quae bonos insequeris plerumque, immo adeo insectaris.” Envy’s purpose in Metamorphoses is to study the ways in which she can thwart good fortune.

  2. against all good beginnings: Of a love that began so fortuitously.

  5. pulled out my salvation: Evicted benevolence from her heart.

  6. too fortunate: Unneedy.

  7. my pure and humble prayers: Poems that pay pious homage to her.

  9–10. weeps / at my own good: According to Ovid and Dante also, these are the responses of Envy.

  12. kill me a thousand times: Cf. 164.13–14.

  14. Love reassures me: He may still reach salvation through constancy and faith.

  173 SONNET

  He has passed the nadir where jealousy reigns, the halfway point in this 56-sonnet series. From such bittersweetness little good can come.

  2. where dwells the one: Love.

  3. my weary soul: Cf. Plotinus, Enneads VI, 5.

  4. earthly paradise: Where Love reigns in Laura’s heart.

  7. is spiderwebs: Spun to catch souls flying too close to the center.

  8. spurs… hot… bit… hard: Love, like the demiurge, takes the role of both evil prompter and limiter.

  9. mixed and contrasting: Distinct from each other, yet obscurely combined.

  11. there it remains: In this state of suspension between the worldly web and the earthly paradise.

  13. repents for its bold action: Seeking her in Paradise, responding to the spurs of Love. Cf. 135.16: “Una petra è sì ardita.”

  14. from such a root: Cf. 142.35–36.

  174 SONNET

  While cursing the circumstances of his birth, this sonnet links his love of Laura with a wider destiny.

  1. the star: On 20 July 1304, as the sun was entering Leo and just at the moment when the White party began its assault on Florence, according to a letter Petrarch wrote to Boccaccio in 1366.

  3. cruel the cradle: Italy, from which his family fled into exile in 1311. The Latin cuna alludes to his exile, written by the fata scribunda at the time of his birth.

  4. cruel the ground: Provence.

  5. cruel the lady: Laura in her aspect as the warrior maiden.

  8. those very weapons: Her eyes.

  10. it’s not harsh enough: She wants him to dedicate his life.

  11. arrow not a spear: The spear, on the other hand, is the weapon for delivering a coup de grace.

  12. I’m consoled: Alone in exile, yet with her in his mind.

  14. your gold shaft: Her glance.

  175 SONNET

  That he should have failed to bring about an end to exile pains him, but his vision endures. Cyclical in form, this sonnet returns in the last tercet to the language of the first quatrain.

  1. comes to my mind: Memories that arrive unbidden, like regret.

  2. that dear knot: Laura’s beauty in soul and body.

  4. weeping, pleasure: Gioco may also have the sense of “game.” Cf. 172.10.

  5. sulphur and tinder: Producing a distinctive odor as they burn. Chiari notes that zolfo (sulphur), which appears only once, is an odd choice of image.

  7. enjoying that I burn: Cf. 172.9–10.

  8. on this I live: Bound, unable to let his line out freely.

  10. still warms me: Smouldering in a cell of silence.

  12. she from afar: His dream of love is as distant as the evening star.

  14. that knot: Nodo, in Laura’s case fresh and whole, is in his case rather like an egg that has been left too long to rot in its hiding place, giving off the infernal smell of sulphur. Or Petrarch may refer to the components of gun powder—sulphur and saltpeter, thereby obliquely punning on his name as well as parodying his style. An anagram of Roger Bacon’s in De mirabili potestate artis et naturae (1242) gave this recipe for gunpowder: “Item ponderis totum 30 sed tamen salis petrae luru vopo vir can utri et sulphuris; et sic facies tonitrium et coruscationem, si scias artificium.”

  176 SONNET

  This sonnet and the next tell of a solitary journey Petrarch took through the forest of Ardennes on a return home to Provence, an event mentioned in a letter to Cardinal Giovanni Colonna dated 1333 (Familiares I, 4). Apparently these sonnets were early compositions he revised and added at a later date.

  3. safely I move: Unarmed with anything but his eyes and ears.

  4. except that sun: Laura, whose ability to wound him is all he fears. He jokes, said Leopardi.

  5. I move and sing: Celebrating her.

  O unwise thoughts: Uncontrolled, exuberant.

  7. she’s in my eyes: He reproduces her in his mind.

  8. firs and beeches: Standing in for the real Laura and her company.

  10–11. the murmur / of water: Hidden waters that nourish the imagination. Cf. Virgil, Georgics IV, 19: “Et tenuis fugiens per gramina rivus.”

  12. lonely chill: From its vastness.

  14. too much of my sun is lost: Her light, lost in the savage hostility of the forest.

  177 SONNET

  Like Cupid carrying a message to the goddess Venus, he traverses the forest of Ardennes “in one day.”

  1. A thousand slopes: He finds Laura’s configuration in the slopes and rivers of the forest, as he saw her in the firs and beeches of poem 176.

  2. famous Ardennes: A wooded plateau in northeastern France. Caesar and Livy wrote of its fearful vastness, Boiardo and Ariosto of its allure for the imagination as a playground for dark psychological conflict.

  3. he wings: Love showed him the least arduous paths through the forest, the quickest route to Venus.

  6. unarmed: Cf. 176.3.

  7. a ship at sea: The teasing tone of this sonnet recalls the “mixed and contrasting” extremes of 173.9, which here mix metaphorically the sea with the forest.

  8. secret thoughts: Penser… schivi are thoughts for which he feels shame, that he’s too modest to express. There is an ambiguity in schivo, since shifting the consonant “v” to “f “ (to schifo), can produce the sense of “disgusting.” Diez found a precedent for this poem in Arnaut Daniel (Curtius, p. 97).

  9. Still: He recalls where he was before he started drifting.

  end of the dark day: The root meaning of Ardennes in Celtic is “dark, obscure” (ardu).

  12. fair country: Provence.

  delightful river: The Rhône.

  178 SONNET

  Such frequent change of mood, such disorienting vacillation in style, is all the fault of Love.

  1. Love spurs: The impudent Cupid of poem 177.

  5. now high now low: His path as he has followed it in these recent sonnets, sometimes with high humor, sometimes low. Cf. poem 134.

  7. seems displeased: Confused by conflicting sig
nals from Love.

  9. A thought that’s friendly: That offers wise advice.

  11. has hopes of joy: The mind can turn either way, toward the imperfect world or away from it. Line 11 is typically a point for making a turn in Petrarch’s sonnet form.

  12. greater force: Laura’s.

  14. its long death and mine: Back to life in Avignon and martyrdom.

  179 SONNET

  Another early work (as early as 1335 says Wilkins), this is a response to a sonnet of his Florentine friend, Geri Gianfigliazzi, asking for Petrarch’s advice in matters of love.

  1. my sweet enemy: Lamenting that his lady warred against him, Geri had asked the expert to suggest a remedy for her anger.

  5–6. wherever…/… cutting short my life: When she chances to look at him, as if scanning his face for the offensive thought and censoring it with her anger.

  7. full of humility: Si vera; cf. 23.101–131 for his thoughts on the psychology of humility.

  9. Were this not so: If he were not so armed.

  10. looking at Medusa’s face: The snaky-haired Gorgon in Greek myth who turned men to stone and was slain by Perseus with the aid of Wisdom’s shield. Cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses IV, 780 ff., and Dante, Inferno IX, 52.

  12. You do the same: This is the advice Geri asked from Petrarch, who, he believed, knew all the ins and outs of love.

  13. to run away is useless: Geri had asked if he should leave the band of lovers if found unworthy. This response amounts to an endorsement of his verse.

  14. the kind of wings: Wings of desire.

  180 SONNET

  More than ever in a playful mood, he transports his body to the turbulent river Po and allows his spirit to soar aloft on the wings of love. The sonnet projects an image quite contrary to the humility he recommended in poem 179.