by Mark Musa
1. Po, you may: He begins with a pun on the river’s name, “Po, ben puo’ tu,” unintentional, Carducci believed.
my outer shell: His body (the rind).
2. rapid waves: The river swollen at flood time.
5. without tacking: Without having to trim his sails. The body, meantime, must ply the waves like an expert navigator.
6. straight to the breeze: Into the west wind in the direction of Laura.
golden leaves: Of the laurel, golden like her hair.
7. favor his desire: Lift him in love.
9. King over others: Sovereign like the spirit that guides the ship. Virgil wrote that all other rivers are but tributaries to the Po.
10. meets the sun: Flows toward the east and morning.
11. a light more lovely: The setting sun, or Laura in the west.
12. on your horn: Corno is a term applied to one of the Po’s branchings, here an analogy for the poet’s passion. Cf. Virgil, Georgics IV, 370: “Et gemina auratus taurino cornua voltu Eridanus, quo non alius per pinguia culta In mare purpureum violentior effluit amnis.”
13. the rest of me: His eternal spirit.
14. dwelling place: Avignon.
181 SONNET
Following on the heroic image of the poet at the foredeck of a plunging ship, this sonnet seems to float down into beauty on the wings of the spirit.
1–2. pretty net/of gold and pearls: Laura’s beauties remembered. Cf. 52.1–3.
3. that tree, ever green: The laurel.
5. The bait: Her glances and sweet manner that first day.
9. And the bright light: Of Laura’s eyes, but by analogy with Adam, the divine glory.
10. the rope: Of the bird-catcher, Love.
11. the hand: Of Laura, but by analogy, the divine gift of spirit.
snow and ivory: Her hand creates a new definition of whiteness, giving warmth to snow and movement to ivory.
13–14. by charming gestures … : The irreducible elements of the trap that the bird-hunter sets for him.
182 SONNET
A new voice intervenes, questioning whether reticence or daring furthers the cause of love.
1. flaming zeal: The word zelo appears just once in the Canzoniere.
2. icy fear: Of her superiority. Cf. Dante in the presence of St. Benedict in Paradiso XXII, 25–27: “I stood there like the anxious man restrained, / forced to hold back the thrust of his desire, / longing to ask while fearing to offend.”
6. full of fear: The one preventing the thrust of the other by holding it in doubt (sospetto).
7. as if a lady: Desire being male, timidity female: an absurd example of jealousy. Cf. Propertius, Elegies II, VI, 13–14: “Omnia me laedent, timidus sum, ignosce timori; et miser in tunica suspicor esse virum.”
8. little veil: Of modesty.
9. Of these two pains: Flaming zeal and icy fear.
11. my sweet sickness: This perpetual burning of zealous love.
12. the other not: Not fear.
13. all men alike: She is beyond rivalry.
14. above her light: Competing with it.
183 SONNET
He describes his own worst nightmare—his cause for fear, that hope for mercy will be withdrawn altogether. This sonnet marks the halfway point in the Canzoniere.
1. can make me die: Cf. 164.13: “I’m born and die a thousand times a day.”
2. pointed words: Full of intelligence.
6–7. to cut / the pity: To turn her eyes from him forever.
8. with death: A final death.
reassures me: Keeps his hope alive by not exercising her option to kill him.
9. a heart of ice: If he seems timid.
11. from long experience: From everything he has known or read.
12. a woman … changeable: Cf. Virgil, Aeneid IV, 569: “Varium et mutabile semper Foemina.”
13. love’s condition: Compassion.
14. lasts little time: The space of a day or night.
184 SONNET
Not only the variability of Laura frightens him but her fragility. She too is subject to illness and death.
3. conspired against me: Cf. Ovid, Heroides X, 117: “In me jurarunt somnus, ventusque, fidesque.”
4. truly make me die: To spur him but fail to rein him in.
5. thread so tender: A metaphor for pity.
6. cannot sustain: So fastidious is her spirit.
7–8. so shy …/… and vile: She loses interest in life (“comes less often”). Laura is at once the poem, the writing poet, and the attention of his audience in this sonnet.
10. lovely limbs: As her senses begin to flee upward in a path toward heaven.
11. mirror of true graciousness: Reflecting God’s grace. He uses the past tense here, speaking of an earlier age.
12. if Pity does not stop: If there is no divine intervention. Cf. Dante, Vita nuova XIX, Donne ch’avete intelletto d’amore: “Sola Pietà nostra parte difende.”
14. vain hopes: Of restoring life to her limbs.
185 SONNET
Laura’s unique beauty is compared once again with the Arabian phoenix, immortal bird of the East. The early Church Father Lactantius compared the phoenix to the Christian soul.
3. forms naturally: Without sophisticated art.
a necklace: A golden ornament of her curls.
5. she forms a natural diadem: With the light of her eyes. Cf. 135.1–15 and note for the preparations the phoenix makes for her death and resurrection.
6. silent flint: The unspoken poetic idea.
7–8. subtle liquid/fire: Like purified gold. Cf. Lucretius De rerum natura VI, 203: “liquidi calor aureus ignis”; and Virgil, Eclogues VI, 33: “et liquidi simul ignis.”
8. when it is coldest: When he must pass through the worst of times.
9. purple gown: The color of the Virgin.
11. that stands alone: The phoenix lives and dies without a mate, coupling only with the sun.
12. rich and fragrant: She dies and is reborn in an odor of frankincense and myrrh.
14. flies through our skies: She has resurrected herself in Laura. See note to 129.70.
186 SONNET
He celebrates Laura, immortal beauty of the Christian era, as a subject worthy of the genius of Homer and Virgil.
2. with my own eyes: He teases.
4. mixing their two styles: Strengthening the art of the Greek with the Latin.
5. Aeneas sad, and troubled: Because their heroism would pale in comparison with the Christian figure.
7. and him who ruled: Augustus Caesar, to whom Virgil dedicated the Aeneid.
8. him Aegisthus killed: Agamemnon, at the instigation of Clytemnestra, as recounted in the Iliad.
9. ancient flower of virtue: Cornelius Scipio Africanus, a great Roman statesman and conqueror of Hannibal. Petrarch admired him throughout his life and made him the subject of his Latin epic Africa.
11. new flower: The subject of his verse, Laura—Petrarch’s hope for a new golden age of peace.
all honesty and beauty: Laura’s arms.
12. Ennius… rough: Roman poet and contemporary of Scipio Africanus, wrote a long epic poem on the Punic Wars, noted by Ovid and Statius for its rude style. Ennius predicted that each age would be distinguished by its ability to produce another Homer.
13–14. I hope my wit … : A modest disclaimer about his style, as well as an ironic comment on an age that produces not epics but love poetry.
187 SONNET
He himself cannot do her justice.
1–4. When Alexander reached … : In Plutarch’s Lives, a naked Alexander crowned the tomb of Achilles for two reasons, to celebrate Achilles’ love for Patrocles and be cause of his celebration by Homer. According to Cicero, Alexander sighed because he himself was never so celebrated.
3. so clear a trumpet: Homer.
5. pure white dove: Laura, symbol of peace, the antithesis of Achilles and Alexander.
6. whose equal, I think: “Non so se” injects an eleme
nt of doubt.
7. resounds too little: Without the clarion call of a trumpet, rather with sighs.
9. Orpheus: Who lost his wife, Eurydice, for having loved too well.
10. shepherd Mantua still honors: Virgil, whose Eclogues explored the mystic origins of pastoral life.
12. star deformed: Petrarch’s birth into this age.
13. loves her lovely name: This devout phrase conflicts with his conclusion in the words to follow.
14. mars, perhaps, her praise: The hesitation of “perhaps” echoes the “I think” of line 6 and the “resounds too little” of line 7, linking the end of the poem with the beginning.
188 SONNET
He asks the sun to stay its course. Dated 1366, this sonnet calls up an Eden cut off from his sight by ever-deepening shadows.
2. alone in her sweet home: Exiled in the new world. Soggiorno refers to her brief stay in this, his life.
4. our fair fall: Eve, who succumbed to temptation and fell into the sin that condemned the race.
5. Let’s stay: Stop the flow of time.
7. on every hillside: Shining on every promontory equally, not pausing at the unrivaled branch flourishing in line 3.
8. what I most yearn for: The sweet light of her eyes, life, time.
11. little sapling: Verga, that is, Laura as a child.
12. takes from my eyes: Obscuring the vision he had of her in the beginning.
189 SONNET
Seeking a return to the “blessed place” where he might find peace, he likens himself to a mariner passing through the Strait of Messina, threatened by the rock and the whirlpool, with only Love as his guide.
1. My ship: His soul in his body on the sea of life.
2. through rough seas: During the worst possible historical time and season.
3. Charybdis and the Scylla reef: Legendary test of spiritual endurance in the Odyssey, Metamorphoses, and the Aeneid.
4. master…foe: Love, who has him at Laura’s mercy.
5. quick and insane thought: Each rowing in a different direction.
7–8. the sail… /blowing breaks: These lines show how deceptively Love navigates by steering clear of both subject and object. One can read them (and perhaps the whole sonnet) two ways, as a threat to his soul, or as a rebellious joke.
9. mist of my disdain: For his own verse.
10. washes and frees: As with a purifying love.
12. two trusty signs: Her eyes, like stars obscured by the stormy darkness.
13. is reason as is skill: The sail responds to reason and the ropes to skill.
190 SONNET
The white doe of this sonnet recalls the famous legend of deer appearing, 300 years after the death of Caesar, with collars around their necks warning, “Noli me tangere, Caesaris sum.” Boccaccio also spoke of a white doe in Decameron (IV, 6) in an episode where a melancholy dream comes true.
1. A doe of purest white: A beast sacred to Diana, here representing Laura.
2. two horns of gold: The braids of her hair.
3. between two streams: The Sorgue and the Rhône (Zingarelli), the one flowing by Vaucluse and the other by Avignon. Other commentators say the Sorgue and Durance. Or the rivers may be allegorical for the two branches of his love, one twisted, one straight.
4. season not yet ripe: April.
7. just like a miser: Like one greedy for her. A play on words (lavoro–l’avaro) has him turning from one obsession to another.
9. around her lovely neck: On a golden collar, according to an account by Solinus, third century A.D.
11. my Caesar: Commentators identify Caesar as God, who created Laura free of sexual and worldly desires. Cf. Familiares XVIII, 8: “Nemo me capiat, quern Julius Caesar liberum esse jussit.”
12. climbed… midway: When the sun reaches its zenith mankind is most prone to seek shade.
14. fell in the water: Took the wrong path.
191 SONNET
Is it possible to live on the strength of his vision alone? This sonnet begins a section of the Canzoniere (ending with poem 263) that was written into the manuscript late in life in Petrarch’s own hand.
7. sweet time of day: In the morning.
8. surpassing all high hope: Che vince, taking him hostage.
9. were it not so quick: Time.
10–11. live / on smell alone: He learned this bit of natural history from a legend recounted by Pliny (Historia naturalis) about an Indian sect on the Ganges: “nullius ad escam opis indigent, odore vivunt pomorum silvestrium, longiusque pergentes, eadem ilia in praesidio gerunt, ut olfactu alantur.”
11. gained belief: He learned this from a reputable source.
12. on water or on fire: Similar phenomena described by Pliny.
13. every sweetness: By extrapolation to his case, living on hope and desire alone. Petrarch uses the Provençal word dolzor instead of his customary dolcezza (sweetness).
182 SONNET
Laura walking through the hills is a miracle to make all Nature rejoice. The one sense he failed to mention in poem 191, hearing, is given ample play by this poem.
1. Let us stay: Cf. 188.5
2. surpassing Nature: Approaching the divine. Cf. 191.1–2.
6. never seen before: Because uniquely experienced by him.
7. puts in motion: Cf. the transfiguration wrought by Beatrice in Dante’s canzone “Donne ch’avete” (“De li occhi suoi, come ch’ella li mova”) Vita nuova XIX.
8. through shady cloisters: Bringing light to hidden meanings.
10. oak ancient and black: Cf. Virgil, Aeneid IX, 381; and Ovid, Metamorphoses IX, 664. The black oak stands for the eternal despair of unfortunate lovers.
11. or press them: Make her mark on them.
12. loving sparks: That ignite the fires in all who behold her.
14. made serene: Brought to peace, as the sky clears when the sun has risen.
193 SONNET
A sonnet that responds to the question asked in poem 191, can he live on sight alone? Her visible beauty nourishes his mind and consumes his soul in forgetfulness, but complete rapture comes when he hears the sound of her voice.
4. all of Lethe: Forgetting the burden of mortal life.
5. When I hear things: Words spoken to him alone.
7. rapt by the hand: Stolen by the bliss of Love. Cf. 181.11.
I know not where: According to Plato, the soul once born into life forgets the source of the bliss it knew in heaven.
8. double sweetness: The sight and the sound, divine and earthly, intellective and sensitive.
9–10. that voice… / resounds: With words of greatest wisdom and virtue.
11. cannot understand: Because he has experienced only a part of her sweetness.
12. Then all together… span: Suddenly seeing, hearing, and understanding the form, music, and meaning of something—all within the spreading of a palm. What he describes is eurythmy.
13. appears to sight: The highest acts of creation consist of such experiences, in which the poet is seized by divinity.
194 SONNET
This is the first of a series of sonnets (poems 194, 196–198) added to the collection in 1368, all beginning with the word Laura. Together with poem 197, they were completed not too long before transcription during a period of intense editorial activity.
1. The gracious breeze: L’aura gentil, coming from the west.
2. awakening flowers: By moving through the countryside, touching the sleeping land. Cf. poem 192.
4. in labor and in fame: Because of the notoriety of his love poetry.
5–8. To find a place … : Lines 5 and 6 refer to Vaucluse, lines 7 and 8 to Avignon.
8. my sun today: Laura.
9. such a sweetness: Tante et tali, differing from the open sweetness of Tuscany.
11. fleeing is slow: Cf. Dante, Inferno II, 80.
12. but wings: To extricate himself from a paradoxical love that draws him back into the fatal center.
195 SONNET
Although i
t interrupts the Laura sequence, this sonnet was retained in this place by Petrarch even after several editorial changes in 1368. Emerging like a naked tree trunk around which he would cultivate his vine, it states his determination to exhaust himself in the service of Laura.
1. face and hair are changing: Showing signs of age as well as a change in style.
2. baited hook: An image from bird-catching.
4. the tree that has no care: The laurel, evergreen and indestructible.
5. lose its water, sky its stars: All things impossible, as he indicates in line 12.
10. until I am deboned: Until he has turned himself inside out and opened to view every tissue of pain penetrated by the arrow of love.
12. All things that cannot be: Referring to the events of Revelation, the end of the world.
196 SONNET
Believed to have been written before the death of Laura (1348), this sonnet was extensively revised in 1368. While working on it Petrarch went ahead and composed poems 194 and 197 and copied them all, along with poem 198, into the final manuscript at the same time (Wilkins, pp. 171–72). This second in the Laura series adds the quality of gold (l’auro–l’oro) to the list of her name’s possibilities.
1–2. The tranquil aura …/… strikes: A breeze whose sound wounds at the same time that it calms. Cf. Dante, Purgatorio XXVIII, 7.
6. jealousy or anger: According to Leopardi and Carducci, that which Laura harbors for his little good fortune. Jealousy in old Latin was connected with fear of competition (cf. 182.5–8). The link between jealousy and anger here recalls the proximity of wrath and sloth in Dante, Inferno VII.
8. furbished gold: Terso, perhaps with the alternate sense of “held in check.”
9. wont to loosen: Once a gesture of open lovingness.
11. thinking of it: Remembering the sound of mormorando (“murmuring”), with its hint of death (mort).