Petrarch

by Mark Musa

  1. Breeze that surrounds: Aura, this one time, does not spell Laura’s name, appearing here without the definite article.

  blond and curling locks: Suggestive of forgetfulness and voluptuousness. Cf. 126.56–60.

  5. wasps of love: One of several unusual expressions in the sonnet. Others are vacillando (staggering), adombre e ’ncespe (shies and stumbles), and gorgo (stream).

  6. feel it… and weep: Experiencing still the effects of the venom of love.

  8. shies and stumbles: Like a horse that rears at shadows. Cf. Plato’s Phaedo: “the soul… wanders and is confused; the world spins around her, and she is like a drunkard, when she touches change” (trans. Jowett).

  12. O happy air: Aer, without the article, corresponding to aura in line 1.

  13. clear running stream: Gorgo (stream) describes a place where quantities of falling water create a whirlpool.

  14. exchange my course: Purify himself in its motion, perhaps die.

  228 SONNET

  Written in the earthy style of the preceding sonnet, this poem portrays him as resigned to the nature of things, kneeling before his idol.

  4. tire out… every emerald: Cf. Dante, Purgatorio VII, 75 ff.: “Think of… fresh emerald the instant it is split—/ the brilliant color of the grass and flowers / within that dale would out-shine all of these, / as nature naturally surpasses art.”

  5. plowing of my pen: He cultivates the heart’s soil with the probing tip of his pen. The expression vomer di penna is not original with Petrarch; it appears in the Etymologies of Isidore of Seville (Curtius).

  7. fragrance reached the heavens: Cf. 136.14 for similar language in a different context.

  8. no other leaf: No other divine symbol. Petrarch seems to use the laurel in its Dionysian sense in this and the preceding poem, that is, as a hallucinogen. Cf. Dante, whose poet’s crown was composed of myrtle, and in particular Virgil, Eclogues II, 54 ff.: “Et vos, o lauri, carpam, et te, proxima myrte; sic positae quoniam suavis miscetis odores.”

  13. a happy burden: His task of cultivating the laurel.

  13. In chaste prayer: Oneste, in language that attempts to match the pure idea of the thing.

  14. something that is holy: Rather than as the earthly thing itself.

  229 SONNET

  This sonnet and the next play with the nature of Love’s effects in order to reveal the universality of its cause.

  1. I sang once: He praised her.

  now I weep: Expressing the common grief. Cf. 230.10.

  3. not the effect: The war that followed his falling in love.

  4. only in love with heights: With the ideal flower in heaven. The roots of his love are so deep they reach the highest.

  7. I suffer equally: With humility or harshness, depending on whether this sonnet’s language is judged to be fine or not so fine.

  8. point of disdain … armor: Even her anger cannot wound him, so relieved is he now of his worldly burden.

  9–10. Let them … : Cf. 207.85–91. Their style is to torment him.

  11. only being happy: Responding to line 4.

  13. beneath the moon: The followers of Diana.

  14. so sweet the root: Cf. 228.9–11.

  what for me is bitter: The “effects” of line 3.

  230 SONNET

  The situation is quickly reversed from what it was in the preceding poem. She has appeared, and he is able to sing.

  1. I wept and now I sing: Cf. 229.1: “I sang once, now I weep.”

  2–4. does not hide …/… holy ways: Laura has shown pity to him.

  3. virtuous Love clearly reveals: An honest and unambiguous exercise of his power to restore.

  6. wind the thread… shorter: He was moved by grief to such degrees of self-sacrifice.

  7–8. that wings … : No amount of praise for her will be adequate to escape the flood and bring him to port.

  9. so full a source: The root that reaches to heaven. Cf. Eccles. 24:1–22.

  10. far off the shore: So far from being remedied.

  11. could hardly reach it: His imagination failed him.

  12. peaceful olive: A simple hope for truce. Cf. Eccles. 24:9, “Quasi oliva speciosa in campis.”

  231 SONNET

  Just when a cessation of struggle seems to be possible, Lauras eyes are once more obscured by a dark cloud, and he questions the wisdom of Nature and God.

  1. happy with my fate: Cf. 229.9–11 and 230.12–14.

  3–4. if other lovers: A single pain in loving Laura is worth more than a thousand ordinary joys.

  5–6. I wont repent /… nor exchange: The burden of his sorrow has become light, happy, and noble.

  7. so dark and dense a cloud: An affliction of the eyes.

  8. almost been extinguished: He has almost lost hope of her recovery.

  9. O Nature: She who formed Laura in God’s image. Cf. 159.1.

  10. such opposing wills: This line echoes Rom. 13:1, “Non est potestas nisi a Deo.”

  11. to do and undo: Give Laura and take her away.

  13. how can You allow: Turning from fickle Nature to God, the highest authority.

  232 SONNET

  Another kind of darkening of the sight is described here, resulting from overwhelming wrath that on occasion in history led to the death of famous men.

  1. victorious Alexander: Alexander the Great, whom Solinus named “victor omnium vino et ira victus” for having killed a close friend in a drunken fit of rage.

  2. Philip: Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander. Insofar as Alexander succumbed to anger, he did not measure up to his father.

  3–4. What good…/… paint him: According to Pliny, Alexander ordered that only Pyrgoteles sculpt him in marble, Lysippus in bronze, and Apelles depict him in paint (Durling).

  5. Tydeus: One of the seven kings of Thebes, deprived of immortality by Athena after sucking out the brains of the dead Melanippus. Cf. Dante, Inferno XXXII, 130.

  6. that dying still: Tydeus first had been mortally wounded by Melanippus.

  7. merely blur: Cf. 231.7

  Sulla: This Roman dictator actually died of rage over a subject’s deceits. He emitted such a cry that a tumor in his chest burst (Carducci).

  9. Valentinianus: The Roman emperor (A.D. 364–375); infuriated by the greed of his legation, he dies of apoplexy.

  11. Ajax: Cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses XIII, 384. In grief and anger at the granting of Achilles’ armor to Ulysses, this invincible warrior was defeated by his own rage when he committed suicide.

  12. a short madness: Cf. Seneca, De ira I, 1: “Quidam itaque e sapientibus viris iram dixerunt breven insaniam.”

  12–13. who can’t / control it: According to Horace, Epistles I, 2, 62, he who doesn’t learn from it perishes by it.

  233 SONNET

  He confirms that he was struck with the same dark affliction of the eyes described in the last two sonnets.

  1. from one of: From her right eye, as he explains in line 9.

  3. dark with pain: Laura’s eyes obscured as they were in poem 231.

  4. there came a force: Vertu, transferring her infirmity to him. Cf. Ovid, Remedia amoris 616: “Dum spectant oculi laesos, laeduntur et ipsi; multaque corporibus transitione nocent.”

  5. to break the fast: Cf. Dante, Paradiso XV, 49, and XIX, 25.

  9. from the right eye: In astrological terms the right eye of the male signified the sun, the right eye of the female the moon. Laura is the sun, he the moon, now darkening.

  10. to my own right eye: The eye empowered by virtue.

  11. the illness that delights me: Because he shares it with Laura—this fading out of light as in an eclipse. Cf. poem 3.

  12. had an intellect: Laura’s darkened eyes sent a message so profound.

  13. like a star shoots: It fell from heaven like “grace.” Cf. Virg, Aeneid V, 527: “Coelo ceu saepe refixa trascurrunt, crinemque volantia sidera ducunt.”

  14. Nature and Pity: Cf. 231.9, where Nature is a “merciful, cruel Mother.” />
  234 SONNET

  His little room, his bed, and the night give him no rest, and he takes flight, seeking the company of common folk. This sonnet is often compared with poem 35, “Solo e pensoso.”

  2. fierce storms: A refuge from the affairs of the world.

  4. in the daytime I hide: These events recall Vita nuova XXXI, after the death of Beatrice.

  5. O little bed… rest: With requie Petrarch may be alluding to the etymological link between letto (bed) and sostegno (support, prop), the source of mercy as well as a sign of the pity of the Virgin.

  6. grieving urns: Laura’s weeping eyes, seen in his dreams, remind him of mourning and death.

  7. with ivory hands: Cf. Propertius II, 1: “lyrae carmen digitis percussit eburnis” (Carducci).

  11. high in flight: Cf. 233.12–14.

  12. I seek the crowd: Where he can hide his shame.

  13. thought I would: After all the scorn he has heaped upon them. Cf. Horace, Odes III, 3: “Odi profanum vulgus et arceo.”

  14. to find myself alone: With presentiments of loss.

  235 SONNET

  In the past he was able to avoid shipwreck by steering his frail craft away from the rock of her pride; now he is threatened far out at sea by storms and darkness.

  2. go beyond my duty: Venturing into dangerous waters. From here through poem 237 Petrarch pursues the theme of seeking forbidden knowledge, as if he were Ulysses traveling beyond the gates of Hercules.

  3. more than ever: Cf. 207.21: “I have become annoying, tiresome.”

  4. sits as monarch: The word monarca appears just this once in the Canzoniere.

  8. blows: Her harsh judgments.

  9. rain … violent gales: His own tumultuous feelings expressed in recent sonnets.

  11. into my sea: An abyss that threatens the death of his soul.

  12. to menace others: More than annoying; at this point he fears for his own salvation.

  236 SONNET

  The last sonnet in this series of twenty-two speaks directly to Love, whose dominion over him has driven him into an excess of passion.

  1. err… error: The first two lines of this sonnet are strongly alliterative, and words beginning with “f” are stressed throughout.

  2. chest’s afire: Like the fire of wrath that overwhelms the mind.

  3. pain keeps growing: These lines play on the various implications of fallo and fallire in line 1.

  4. vanquished by his pain: Of his own dark illness.

  5. to fight the heat: To rein it in with his art, to temper it.

  6. darken her clear face: Cf. poems 231–233.

  8. in despair: He has nothing more to lose.

  9–11. Then if against … : His seeking refuge among the common herd in poem 234 may be the venturing off he refers to. Love has driven him into uncharted seas.

  11. the hardest ways: The difficult upward path but also occasional rocky descents.

  14. forgive herself: Her own human failings, projected on him.

  237 SESTINA

  He fast-forwards in this sestina as if he were undoing acts of creation one by one to arrive at the moment of the world’s end.

  1–6. There aren’t as many … : Surveying all that a dweller of the earth can learn from his position “under the moon.”

  8. to cut in me: Scevri, meaning to separate, after choosing, the mortal from the immortal. Cf. St. Augustine, Confessiones XIII, 17–18.

  9. some shore: So that he might awake like the first man at the dawn of the first day.

  11. they know, those woods: Because they contain the secret resting place of the moon, which he now seeks.

  12. I, alone: Speaking of his soul’s solitary journey through perilous times.

  13. I’ve never had tranquility: Cf. poems 22 and 50.

  14. morning and evening: Hours that bear traces of the night.

  15. dweller of the woods: A love poet.

  16–18. before I rest… : His world in history moves toward its own undoing.

  16. have no waves: In 218.12 he connected such an event with the death of Laura.

  17. suns light will be furnished: Reversing nature and giving power to the forces of the night.

  21. nor… stabler than the moon: He waxes and wanes.

  23. sighs from my breast: The painful effects of his verse.

  24. tremble through the woods: Send strong reverberations.

  25. Cities are foes: Seats of intrigue.

  friendly are the woods: Where birds may hide and violets grow in secret.

  26. lofty shore: A high clearing on a mountain at the edge of the woods where he might find the light of the moon.

  27. murmuring of the waves: His tears mingle with the tears of history.

  28. sweetest silence of the night: Cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses VII, 184: “per muta silentia noctis”; and Virgil, Aeneid II, 255: “per amica silentia lunae.”

  29. wait…for evening: For the last, sweet sleep of the mind.

  30. make way for the moon: And her influence. According to Aristophanes, a moon that succeeds an aging sun marks a period of political plots and betrayal.

  31. with the lover of the moon: Sharing the fate of Endymion, eternally youthful, beloved by Selene, goddess of the moon. Enchanted into perpetual sleep, Endymion enjoyed Selene’s love each evening on Mount Latmos, lying in dream while she made love to him.

  33. and she, who … gives me evening: Laura, who would have him die before his time.

  34. came with the moon: Where he awaits her in the moonlit clearing.

  35. for one night: Like Endymion and Selene, sharing one night eternally.

  37. Above harsh waves: Vellutello defined these waves as his bitter, hard-edged verse.

  38–39. born by night … / a rich shore: A new style, springing from dream and thoughts of death.

  39. tomorrow evening: A new beginning. Cf. 214.8.

  238 SONNET

  Placed between two sestinas, this single sonnet seems to mark an event of extraordinary importance. The illustrious personage who honors Laura with his kiss has not been identified, although he is generally believed to be Charles of Luxemburg, later Emperor Charles IV, who came to Avignon in 1346.

  2. eye of the lynx: Capable of seeing through mountains and walls, according to Brunetto Latini’s Livres dou Trésor V, 57.

  3. swift foresight: A gift for taking providential action.

  4. worthy to dwell: His regal position graced by the nobility of his character.

  5. Finding many a lady: Cf. poems 218, 222, and 225. This large company recalls the sixty ladies of Dante’s Vita nuova VI.

  8. the best among… lovely faces: Laura.

  9. The others: Wealthier and more aristocratic than the humble Laura.

  10. with a gesture: A regal, providential choice.

  14. strange, sweet action: A unique act of deference to one so humble, young, and beautiful.

  239 SESTINA

  At least two elements mark this sestina as a departure: first, Laura is clearly named twice; and second, she is set apart from the ever-renewing spring breeze (l’aura) as an alpine peak beyond the reach of love and poetry.

  5. stirred: Inspired.

  6. to my notes: To his own music or poetry.

  7. such gentle notes: Like the natural sounds of spring smoothing her roughness.

  8. sweeten Laura: This is the first naming of his love not disguised in some manner by spelling. In poem 5 she was Laureta, in poem 225 Laurëa, elsewhere l’aura.

  9. reasoning: Using the force of argument to soften her.

  11. before love blossoms: Before his love poems have their miraculous effect.

  12. who never cared for rhymes or for my verses: She whose soul is immune to changes of climate will not respond to love poetry. Cf. Virgil, Eclogues II, 6: “O crudelis Alexi, nihil mea carmina curas.”

  15. to make humble that soul: To bring her feelings finally into play.

  16. rough mountain: A Virgilian image, Aeneid VI, 470–71: “
Nec magis incepto vultum sermone movetur, quam si dura silex aut stet Marpesia cautes.”

  17. leaves and flowers: Lesser souls than hers (Carducci).

  18. a greater force: Of her immutability.

  24. to draw from life: Draw his soul upward to Heaven.

  28. There’s nothing can’t be done: Cf. Virgil, Eclogues VIII, 69; and Ovid, Metamorphoses VII, 179–214, for the powers of the imagination.

  29. charm even serpents: Cf. Pliny, Historia naturalis XXVIII, 4: “serpentes contrahique Marsorum can tu etiam in nocturna quiete.”

  30. decorate the frost: Coax spring out of winter.

  31. The slopes: Beneath the rough mountain, where he is.

  33. amorous notes: Like the laughter of flowers. Cf. 127.71–90.

  34. our cruel fortune: Speaking to his soul.

  greater force: Greater than the wit he would gather in lines 26–27.

  36. lame ox: In the Augustinian sense, perhaps—with a faltering evangelism. Cf. note to 50.58.

  37. In nets … flowers: Acts of magic.

  38. deaf and rigid soul: The pitiless Laura.

  39. who prizes neither: The fault is hers; more’s the pity.

  240 SONNET

  With this sonnet a series of twenty-four begins, all of which were added to the collection late in Petrarch’s life. The preceding sestina and poems 240–243 were included between 1371 and early 1373. Poems 244–263 were added in the last year of his life (Wilkins, 1951, pp. 176–83). It was during this period that he described his rhymes to Pandolfo Malatesta as “nugellas meas vulgares.”

  3–4. complete/faithfulness: Only his faith, in fact, guides him through the full round of experience.

  8. I am forced to follow: Into error by overwhelming ardor, but also by the limitations of the verse line. Tassoni found an earlier poet, Ugolin Buzzuola, who used the rare form sego (follow) in “Di me non t’ungi, che passion non sego.”