Petrarch

  12. tighter knots: With greater control.

  14. free it from such ties: Such stringent conditions.

  197 SONNET

  As the tranquil and gracious aura of poem 196 threatened to suffocate him, so that which is celestial turns him to stone.

  3. a yoke of sweetness: The burden of testifying. Cf. Matt. 10:9, “Iugum meum suave est.

  5. has power like Medusa’s: In Ovid (Metamorphoses IV, 630 ff.) Perseus turns the jealous Atlas into a rocky mountain by holding up the severed head of Medusa.

  8. amber: A fossil resin valued for its beauty and its property of attracting lighter objects when polished.

  9. curly snare: The conical shape of her curls.

  11. armed only with humility: The desire to serve her. Humility is often called into service at a point of ambiguity. Cf. 179.7.

  12. Her shadow: Her temporal self.

  13. with whitened fear: Made pallid and ineffectual.

  14. into marble: Transformed like Atlas into hard rock.

  198 SONNET

  The fear of judgment expressed in poem 197 is weighed in a balance with her fertile aura and the inseminating effect of her eyes.

  1. spreads and waves: Like the breeze over sunlit fields.

  3–4. binds/my weary heart: Sustains it. “Binds” continues the grainfield metaphor, aluding to the tying of the sheaves.

  5. blood’s own fiber: His veins.

  6. all tremble: Feel her force at their naked centers. Cf. Dante, Purgatorio XXX, 46 ff.; and Virgil, Aeneid II, 120.

  9. those lights: The truth in her eyes.

  10. those locks: Her gathered hair. Cf. 196.7 and 196.12.

  11. right shoulder… left: Corresponding to his life and death in line 8.

  12. I cannot comprehend: Cf. 193.11.

  13. my mind is struck: Offeso, literally “assailed.”

  14. wearied and oppressed: Under the weight of his good fortune.

  199 SONNET

  According to a note on his working manuscript, Petrarch found this sonnet among his papers on 19 May 1368 during a sleepless night and was reminded of events twenty-five years earlier. Wilkins (1951, pp. 171, 184) describes how Petrarch left a space for it in the final version but delayed transcribing it until late in life, during crucial revisions in 1373–74. The fiction of the sonnet is that Laura has removed her glove so that he now gazes on the beauty of her unadorned hand. Two more sonnets follow on the subject of the glove.

  2. enclosing in so little space: His heart constricts like a bird caught in the hand (Da-niello). Cf. 23.73–74 and 127.85–90.

  3. all art and care: Cf. poems 154,159,193.12–14. Nature and Heaven conspired in her creation.

  5. five pearls of oriental hue: Her finger tips.

  7. naked now: Revealed.

  10. polished ivory: The ivory hand in French art is symbolic of the monarchy. fresh roses: Of her fingernails.

  11. such gracious spoils: The glove. Cf. Virgil , Aeneid IV, 651: “Dulces exuviae, dum fata deusque sinebat.”

  12. had as much of her fair veil: He plays on the layering of meaning implicit in the lady removing her glove, in the naked hand revealed by her act, and in the beauty of the glove itself.

  13. O the inconstancy: The unpredictability.

  14. this is theft: his seeing is a furtive act.

  200 SONNET

  Another in the series of sonnets recounting the affair of the glove.

  1. Not only: Line 1 lingers over the attributes of her hand.

  2. clothes itself again: Concealing itself.

  3. the other, too: The left hand may also enchant him.

  5. none in vain: He is susceptible to all of them.

  6. new, and honest forms: Her ungloved hands.

  8. cannot reach it: Cannot comprehend the perfection of her being.

  9. her eyebrows lit by stars: Cf. 157.10.

  12. in amazement: Of her miraculous qualities, at which he can only marvel.

  13–14. which seen / in summer … put out the sun: Conquering light at the peak of light.

  201 SONNET

  Regret at having lost an opportunity pervades this sonnet. The affair of the glove is long over.

  2. embroidery of silk: Serico trapunto, the glove Laura permitted him to take up in poem 199.

  4. Think who has worn this!: He is able to infer the whole person from the glove.

  5. that day: The first day.

  9. that I did not: Cf. 199.14.

  10–11. firmer / against the strength: More resistant to all the charms listed in poem 200.

  12. add wings to my feet: Cf. Virgil, Aeneid VIII, 224: “pedibus timor addidit alas.”

  13. take vengeance: Redress the wrong she does him by withdrawing her favor. Cf. 72.55–58.

  202 SONNET

  The cruel force of circumstance threatens to overwhelm his supine heart, still fearful and humble.

  1. polished… living ice: Impenetrable. The polished surface of the ice hints at a new sophistication.

  4. I am perishing: Giving up his blood to the flame little by little, unreplenished by the water of mercy.

  6. thundering skies or lion that roars: Death is like vengeful Jupiter or an angry monarch about to snuff out his life.

  8. I in silence: A sign of his obedience and humility.

  10. like double columns: His defense. Cf. poem 40, where the doubling of love and pity on the part of the benefactor would bring forth a doubling of the poet’s creative output.

  13. my enemy: The living ice of line 1.

  14. but fate: Unhappy chance. In this particular extremity, love cannot be held responsible for the weakness of his verse.

  203 SONNET

  This melancholy reproof addresses an indifferent Laura who will, nevertheless, continue to live immortalized in his verse. The sonnet was translated into Latin by Thomas Gray and seems to have served as a lesson for “Elegy Written in a Country Church-yard.”

  4. and yet she sees it: Laura, and only Laura can see into his heart.

  5. of such little faith: An extraordinary departure, which has its repercussions in later verse.

  6. my heart within my eyes: Always before their shared secret.

  7. for my star: His destiny to be born at this point in history. Cf. 187.12 and 202.14.

  10. diffused in all my verse: Diluting to the point of quenching his fire.

  11. yet inflame perhaps a thousand others: The uncertainty of “perhaps” corresponds to “diffused.” “Others” is a reference to posterity.

  12. my sweet fire: Zingarelli refers to this as a blandishment.

  14. still full of sparks: The memory of her loving eyes inspiring new poets, but also his tongue giving off incendiary bits in his verse, even after death.

  204 SONNET

  He recollects himself after his bitter words in the last sonnet, addressing his heart, soul, eyes, and ears about the choices that lie ahead.

  1. My soul: The line echoes the beginning of poem 135, the canzone that began his winding travels through recent history.

  3. my wishful eyes: Open to the world and its glory. you among the senses: His hearing.

  6. so badly traveled: Laura redeems him from an unenlightened present.

  8. footprints: Immortal signs that she has come and that her beauty has been recorded.

  11. can prepare us: Make us worthy.

  13. the cloud: Shrouding his world in confusion. Cf. the nebbia of poem 66.

  205 SONNET

  In this summation of the longest sonnet cycle in the Canzoniere, all that has come before, however painful, shares in the sweetness of the pleasure she has given him.

  1–4. Sweet anger … : These lines stand without benefit of verb.

  4. sweet breeze: The aura of heaven which his life-in-time has granted him.

  7. sweet honor: Cf. Dante, Rime: “Ch’ amor di tanto onor mi ha fatto degno.” See also Catullus XLVIII, 17: “non est dea nescia nostri quae dulcem curis miscet amaritiam.”

  8. my o
nly pleasure: The last eight lines of the sonnet are ruled by this statement. Cf. Ovid, Ars amatoria, 42: “Elige cui dicas: Tu mihi sola places.”

  9–10. someday, someone: Cf. 203.11, “perhaps a thousand”; here, only one, perhaps a love poet who might follow him.

  10. tinged with sweet envy: Of one so intoxicated with sweetness.

  12–14. Others … : Cf. 204.5–8. Others might think he enjoyed the best of all possible worlds, despite the evidence of their senses.

  206 CANZONE

  Like poem 29, this canzone is modeled on a Provençal form. Bertran de Born lent a name to it, the escondig or “defense,” in his canzone, “Eu m’escondisc, domna, que mal non mier.” The stanzas rhyme by pairs, using -ella, –ei, and –ia throughout in a circular pattern of recurrence. The -ella words, used to rhyme interiorly in poem 29, are brought forth to the end of the line, becoming once more interior in the last line of the poem.

  The poet defends himself against the accusation that he has fallen short in his love of her by something he has said. The if-clause-subjunctive-conditional sequence and the sounds of words heavy with sibilants call his true meaning into question.

  1. If ever I said it This phrase is repeated three times in each of the first four stanzas. The words he has been accused of saying are never identified in the canzone but are hinted at in a number of lines.

  4. vulgar lordship: A lesser love, in which the body rules the soul.

  5. may all stars: Not just the fateful star under which he was born.

  7. both fear and jealousy: A cruel double punishment.

  8. my enemy: Laura.

  11. the golden ones… the leaden: Cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses I, 468 ff.

  14. with blind torch: Facella, a pauper’s candle that is too faint to light the way.

  15. straight to my death: To his natural end, shortened by deprivation.

  20. full of my least desires: A form of damnation in which only unworthy desire rises to combat her resistance.

  24. nor his sister: The moon.

  25. nor damsel nor a lady: Nor any mortal woman.

  27. Pharaoh saw: Cf. Exod. 14–15.

  36. might just well do it: Say it. He alludes to Virtue “alone and locked in darkness.”

  37. But if I did not: He turns the premises around but without confirming or denying the charge against him. In the next stanza, he will deny it.

  39. weary little bark: His humanity.

  40. mercy at the tiller: Cf. poem 189.

  41–44. may she not change … : A very beautiful expression of wishful thinking that carries its own defense. To return to the pure love of that first day has always constituted his greatest need.

  45. such faithfulness: Cf. 203.5–6: “Unending beauty of such little faith, / can you not see my heart within my eyes?”

  46. I never said it: Whatever he said was never meant to impugn his pure faith in the young Laura.

  47. gold, cities, or castles: With these images he brushes away abstraction, seizing real weapons of irony that his enemies can understand.

  48. hold to the saddle: Truth conquers through the strength of one man who downs the challenger on the battlefield.

  53. three, four, and six times: Cf. Virgil, Aeneid I, 98: “O terque quaterque beati, quis … contigit oppetere!” Carducci cites Boccaccio, Decameron V, I, the tale of Cimone and Efigenis, in which the narrator tells of the “holy, weighty and beneficent powers of Love.”

  54. who dies before: Who dies at the peak of his powers.

  55. For Rachel: Cf. Gen. 29:25. Dante (Purgatorio XXVII, 106–108) also distinguishes between the two sisters, having Leah say: “She loves to contemplate her lovely eyes; / I love to use my hands to adorn myself: her joy is in reflection, mine in act.”

  56. nor with another: One more worldly and materialistic.

  58. if Heaven calls us back: Cf. 29.11. Petrarch uses the word rappella to mean to snatch from the jaws of death.

  59. in Elijah’s chariot: Cf. 2 Kings 2:11.

  207 CANZONE

  If poem 206 was an attempt to penetrate her hardness, its weapons have glanced off, and here Petrarch finds himself regrouping at the edge of the battlefield. The canzone was written in part in 1346, then revised and completed in 1368.

  3. new stratagems: More clever methods of wooing her.

  6. teaching me such art: The furtive art.

  8–9. thief / of that fair: Cf. 199.12–14.

  10. in great pain: His living in great pain is a given, the honor due him for having loved her. Cf. 205.5–8.

  12. the style I now must take: A new tack. He last spoke of changing style in 142.35–39.

  13. there’s less shame: Cf. Ovid. Fasti IV, 9: “Quae decuit primis sine crimine lusimus annis.” It is forgiveable in one’s youth to steal glances from a forbidden love.

  15. beauty lofty and divine: Laura at their first encounter.

  18. some hidden help that is external: The divine spark that linked him to God, seen in her eyes.

  22. become annoying: His youth no longer excuses him.

  22. a poor, starving wretch: He must steal.

  25. by envy: His own. Poem 206 seemed to teach that his sins are his own, not ever hers, even though his syntax might give a different impression.

  32. a man of wax: The first of several images that encompass the life-death-rebirth cycle. Others are the hunted bird, the salamander, the spring lamb, and the seasons.

  33–38. I Look around … : His efforts to woo her are those of the innocent bird seeking ever more nourishing fruit just where the hunter is most likely to spread his net.

  41. wondrous salamander: According to popular belief, an animal that both lives and feeds in flames.

  42. he wills it so: The wondrous salamander is as natural as the will of Love. Cf. Mark 14:36.

  44. I rested for awhile: Doomed like the feeding bird.

  45. as they do others: First being fed and then sacrificed as food for others.

  48. here and there: Like any creature seeking to sustain life.

  52. what she does not miss: Since she possesses renewable wealth in such abundance.

  53. All know: All but one, Laura.

  57. who knows: He is one who has researched this inexhaustible subject.

  58. There’s one who: Cf. 191.11

  62. such stinginess: For the word parco, see 144.7.

  64. let me die by your hand: He implores her to look upon him lovingly one last time.

  65. good death can honor: Cf. 59.15 and 140.44.

  66. burns hottest: Cf. 105.52: “a hidden beauty is the sweetest thing.”

  70. regret those cries: When his anger burst out in recrimination.

  72. O thought in vain: Telling the plain truth failed to change anything.

  76. knots and chokes it: Forcing him to lie, steal, and to veil his meaning.

  78. The fault is yours: All conspire: the world and Fortune, Love and Laura.

  80. another’s sin: The world’s. Cf. poems 216 and 217.

  82. too much light: That dazzled him.

  84. sweet poison: Injected on the arrow tip of Love, causing delirium, cries, and annoyance.

  87–90. and it will be … : This impending cure refers to the “style I now must take” of the first stanza.

  91. to die well: A revision of line 65 that may be strategic, signaling his intention to make new use of his “sweet poison.”

  92. I’ll hold the field: His war continues, but with new weapons.

  98. equal to my bad: A preview of the poems to follow.

  208 SONNET

  However he may regret the necessity for his furtive style, he arms himself with it again and turns toward Avignon. Wilkins dates this poem very early, to 1333.

  1–2. river…/… gnawing: A pun on Rodano-rodere (Rhône-gnaw).

  3. descends in yearning: To the valley and eventually to the sea.

  4. and you by Nature only: The river’s path is swift and direct, his weak and diffuse.

  5. flow on ahe
ad: To Avignon, where Laura is.

  6–7. give the sea/its due: Its rapid spring torrents. Cf. 148.3–4.

  9. that sun of ‘ours: Laura.

  10. your left bank: The side of Avignon.

  11. perhaps (oh what hope!): This bit of phrasing was more than once imitated and caused fierce debate in 1654, because one scholar said it required a question mark and another, an exclamation point (Carducci).

  slowness: His failure to come, to cross over to the greener grass.

  12. kiss her foot: A gesture of obeisance to the pope.

  and lovely hand: A sign of respect to the monarch.

  13. be like your words: A reproach, in the spirit of the words to follow.

  14. The spirit’s ready: The words of Christ on the Mount of Olives when he could not rouse the sleeping disciples. They wound the poet’s conscience, or anyone else’s who cannot cross over—cannot “stand the test,” in the words of Jesus.

  209 SONNET

  The journey from Vaucluse is like a flight from love, futile for him who carries the incurable wound.

  1. Those hills of sweetness: Vaucluse.

  3. and there before me: In his memory.

  behind me still: Literally, at his back.

  6. though I move: Though he may shift his styles and even, apparently, his thinking.

  9. Just like a stag: Cf. 23.157–160, Virgil, Aeneid IV, 67 ff.

  10. a poisoned piece of iron: This arrow tip is lethal.

  12. that shaft piercing my left side: The “iron” of his analogy turns to poison what is usually golden, creating a sickness.

  13. giving me delight: Yet part of him feels pleasure. How this compares with the plight of the stag has been questioned. See note to 23.159.

  210 SONNET

  It seems that she has singled him out for suffering. The rhyme scheme abab, baab is used only one other time in the collection, in poem 295.