Petrarch

  12. between, one glory and the other: His soul, caught in time, between her face and her hand.

  14. supernatural sweetness: What sublime potential lay in that moment.

  258 SONNET

  The memory of her sparkling eyes and heavenly speech gives him double pleasure.

  1. living sparks: The tinder in her eyes that aroused his love.

  3. wise heart, sighing: Her eyes and her heart were in synchrony.

  4. lofty words: Eloquenzia—persuasive.

  8. under the change… harshness: Referring to the first day, the change she wrought in him with her glance, and that moments significance.

  9. nourished… grief and pain: Caught in the snare like the bird of poem 257.

  10. power of habitualness: His habit of expecting the worst based on her “accustomed harshness.”

  11–12. weak/at the mere taste: Cf. poems 2 and 3; and Dante, Vita nuova XI and XII (the effect on Dante both of Beatrice’s greeting and her denial of it).

  14. often in between: Between her spoken words and the thought communicated in her glance (vive favilie). Cf. 257.12.

  259 SONNET

  Kind Fortune compels him to return to Avignon where the writing hand is put to the service of Laura. Tassoni read this sonnet as a response to another poet who may have questioned Petrarch’s motives.

  2. and the woods know this: Witness his contemplations.

  3. deaf and devious minds: Deaf to poetry, jealous and suspicious of truth. The word loschi (devious) appears just once in the Canzoniere.

  6. sweet air of Tuscany: His native land and Arcadia. Cf. poem 139.

  7. Sorgue: The source of waters and inspiration in Vaucluse.

  8. help me weep and sing: By imitation of its murmuring sound.

  10. pushes me back: Against his natural bent.

  to where I fill with anger: To Avignon, the modern “Babylon.”

  11. lovely treasure: Laura.

  in the mud: Her luster dimmed by everything worthless and unlovely, sunk in formlessness. Fango was a common disparagement of materialism.

  12–13. this hand…/… made friends: Found a useful object for his anger.

  13. perhaps justly so: He speaks of a rare time when he and Fortune were in agreement.

  260 SONNET

  He returns to an old theme: Laura’s unique position in the world. This sonnet draws comparisons with several of history’s most tragic female figures.

  1. In such a star: That ruled the day he first saw her.

  3. nests of Love: Her eyes.

  7–8. not even she … : More beautiful than Helen, whose seizure brought about the war between Greece and Troy.

  8. final shrieks: Those of the Trojan women grieving as Troy burned.

  9. not the lovely Roman who with iron: More beautiful than Lucretia, raped by the tyrant Tarquinius. Lucretia committed suicide in the presence of her husband and father rather than endure the loss of her honor. Terquinius was later expelled and the Roman Repubic established.

  11. Polyxena: Betrothed of Achilles, sacrificed on his funeral pyre after the hero was slain by Paris.

  Hypsipyle: Queen of Lemnos, seduced and abandoned by Jason during the voyage of the Argonauts.

  Argeia: Wife of Polynices, son of Oedipus and Jocasta. Argeia wore the necklace of Harmonia, a guarantee for misfortune.

  12. This excellence: This beauty and nobility in misfortune.

  14. long in coming: Urgently awaited.

  261 SONNET

  Women with high aspirations may learn from her manners and conduct, but her true beauty can be found only in her eyes.

  4. my enemy: Because her ideal beauty attracts him while her perfection pushes him away as unworthy.

  called by the world my lady: So described by those who do not see the whole significance of her being. He cannot exclude himself from their number, being, as he is, in love.

  6. wed to charming ways: Zingarelli calls these qualities of charm (leggiadria) and chastity (onestà) irreconcilable. Nonetheless, Petrarch seeks to reconcile them throughout the Canzoniere.

  9–14. and there the speech … : He sets up a triad of beauty, honesty, and the medium of speech, speech being the bond that holds the two extremes together. These tercets may be a gloss on Dante, Paradiso XXXIII, where language is denied the power to capture more than a spark of the supreme light.

  10. the lovely silences: The truth of her nature is withheld or is too deep for understanding.

  13. sweet rays: Her inner light—intelligence. Cf. Dante, Paradiso XXXIII, 85.

  262 SONNET

  In this dialogue between a stern young maiden and her mother, the topic of womanly honor is pursued further, with the poet praising the uncompromising stance of the maiden.

  1. “Precious is life… “: This voice has been identified as that of an older respected woman friend of Laura’s, as her real mother, or as Mother Nature speaking on behalf of the life of her creation.

  4. not without virtue: Onestà is understood to be all-inclusive, not a division.

  5. allows her honor to be taken: Chooses dishonor in order to preserve her life.

  6. not a lady: Cf. 261.4. A true lady will somehow maintain her spiritual integrity.

  or alive: This line seems to respond to questions he has raised since 250.14.

  7. appear to be: The appearance of integrity suggests its opposite, fraud and deceit.

  8. more than death: A living death, perhaps like the life of an honorable person brought low among evil men.

  11. Lucretia’s story … : Cf. 260.9 and note. Lucretia’s beauty also derived from the truth of her harsh and grim example, by which she was delivered from life.

  12. Let all philosophers: The poet is speaking.

  13. their ways will all be low: That Petrarch is disparaging the Scholastics has been suggested by some.

  14. hers alone: This maiden’s tragic path to glory.

  263 SONNET

  The concluding sonnet of this series of twenty-four is the first in the Canzoniere in which Petrarch uses the familiar tu form with his lady. She is the “triumphant tree,” the laurel, whose integrity mimics the divine.

  In Vatican manuscript 3195 this sonnet is followed by several blank pages. The great canzone, poem 264, follows, its initial letter large and shaped by Petrarch in the same manner as that of poem 1, indicating that it marked the beginning of Part Two of a two-part work. Whether Part One actually concludes with this sonnet or was meant to be followed by other works has never been established. The presence of blank pages in Vat. Lat. 3195 was cited by Wilkins as evidence that Petrarch had in mind other poems for inclusion. However, blank pages appeared in earlier manuscripts also, increasing in number with time from 11/2 (Chigi), to 3, to 5, to 7 in the final form. (See Wilkins 1951 on the Chigi, Malatesta, Quiriniano, and final forms.) As for whether the sonnet can be regarded as conclusive, this poem and several preceding it seem to make an ironic statement about living at the cusp of disaster, culminating with the image of the solitary poet still defending the virtue of the laurel tree.

  2. the honor: Cf. 161.5–8.

  5. cares for nothing but: Cf. poems 260–262, where honor and integrity have restored Laura to the highest state, a context in which all her other qualities may be savored.

  8. nor can deceit avail: Cf. 262.6–8: “if some appear to be ….”

  9. Gentility of blood: This tercet and the next demonstrate lines 5–6. Such a dismissal of noble origins is a significant departure from poetic tradition. Cf. poem 4.

  11. you equally despise: This departs from Petrarch’s own earlier efforts to adorn his humble Laura with precious materials. Cf. poem 220 for one example.

  13. bores you: Her mortal existence wears on her, as do pearls and gold.

  264 CANZONE

  The year before Laura’s death in 1348, Petrarch began to assemble a new collection of his love poems that fell into two parts, with this canzone as the opening poem of Part II. Through subsequent collections,
and in the final manuscript, Vat. Lat. 3195, he maintained this division in spite of the fact that Lauras death, not announced until poem 267, seemed to mark a plausible dividing point. Some editors (such as Carducci and Ferrari) have separated the Canzoniere into the “life” and “death” of Madonna Laura at poem 267, although Petrarch himself did not do so at any point. What makes this canzone unique, however, is the very disappearance of a realized Laura from its lines. She is evoked neither as natural beauty nor as a moral vision but prevails rather as an ineradicable factor, an inborn trait with which the poet suddenly finds himself alone. The vision of self-sacrifice that concludes Part I had created, it seems, the need for a complete reappraisal: hence he makes his confession here, like St. Augustine before him, “not in words and sounds made by the tongue alone, but with the voice of my soul and in my thoughts which cry aloud to you, O Lord” (Confessiones X, 2).

  1. I go on thinking: Cf. 129.1–2: “From thought to thought… / Love leads me on.”

  4. different kind of grief: Before he grieved because Laura disdained him; now he feels deprived of God’s grace (Castelvetro).

  6. a thousand times: In every love song.

  9. received no help: No force strong enough has interceded for him.

  11–13. and it is only just: Cf. 105.12–13; Dante, Purgatorio XIX, 118–26.

  14. Those arms stretched out: Those of Christ crucified.

  17. how others ended: Going to Hell.

  19. it declares: Unequivocally, like the voice of his conscience.

  22. with what dishonor: As he fails to act decisively.

  24–25. every last root/of pleasure: Worldly good.

  26. let you breathe: Free of greedy desire.

  27. have long been tired: Demonstrated by his attacks on others in his verse.

  29. a gift: Fame. This voice argues against a false sweetness (desire for fame) that leads nowhere and for a different sweetness (desire for God), both generated by Laura.

  treacherous world: Which deceives with its promises.

  40. still to be born: Into a less unworthy age. If she were to come later, a more peaceful world would be better able to appreciate her.

  42. the image of her rushing down: Cf. 72.43–45.

  44. could not enter: Cf. 2.8.

  45. false flame: The desire for fame lit simultaneously with the desire for good.

  46–47. the day …/ never comes: Earthly fulfillment being only one part of the true good, false in the sense of incomplete. Cf. Boethius, Consolatione Philosophiae III, 10.

  49–54. gazing on the heavens … : In contrast with partial mortal pleasures, the voice describes a complete eternal joy.

  53. a mere glance, a word… a song: Earthly love, poetry, and music being expressions of the eternal harmony of the spheres.

  55. another thought: Inner, not spoken aloud. Cf. line 19.

  bittersweet: Desire for his verse to be read and understood.

  56. delightful weight: His love of Laura that holds his soul in this life.

  62. grow back the stronger: His love is strengthened by rejection and defeats. Cf. 241.12–14.

  65. share one grave: That neither his love nor he will achieve lasting fame.

  68–69. Latin or Greek tongues / … all wind: Vento, rumor. Cf. Dante, Purgatorio XI, 100.

  71. hoarding what in a moment scatters: Words and memories of the meaning of words, ever changing.

  72. truth … lies: Preserve the purity of the word, cleansing it of error.

  73. that other passion: Love of her eyes. This begins another line of thought from an inner voice of experience.

  79. with reins: The. purity of her eyes acts as a restraint against excess of sophistication or crudeness.

  81–82. oil / my boat: Try to make it seaworthy and steady on some more worthy course.

  83. tied… by those two knots: Conflicting loves.

  84. from other knots: Other wordly entanglements, such as power and riches.

  87. wipe from my face this shame: This weakness of purpose and servitude to another. Cf. lines 12–13, 21–22, 45–47, and 73–76.

  90. have no weapons: “either wit nor might” (1. 80).

  91–92. I know myself …/… truth: Ovid, Metamorphoses VII, 90–91: “I see what I am doing; I shall never / Be fooled by ignorance of the truth, but love” (Medea speaking).

  93. blocks the path of honor: Forces the lover to improvise by taking a less praiseworthy route.

  95–98. I feel enter my heart … : Although he is defenseless against his own weakness, he is able to disdain it in his verse so that it becomes part of an integrated whole.

  108. she pleased me, and herself: She narcissistic, he obsessed with her beauty. Cf. poems 45 and 125.46.

  110. When tenderly I came: When his little amorous fable began.

  112. to start against myself: Rebelling against his best interest.

  113. my body’s veil: The senses.

  119. loss makes him wary and wise: As one who has spent too much money and must now count every coin.

  120. I think back to the point: As far back as poem 2.

  124. the other will not free me: His twofold love came first from her eyes and second from her grieving appearance. This refers to her eyes.

  126. it dares bargain: Cf. Petrarch’s Secretum III; and St. Augustine, Confessiones VI, 12.

  128. snow that’s turned to ice: Weighted down by so many changes of season as to be almost glacial.

  130. I’ve wound the spool: His tapestry will be so long, so wide, and not more so, that is, ordita.

  131. good length of my short thread: Using up his materials.

  132. a weight: Cf. lines 55–58.

  134. Death at my side: Cf. line 126.

  135. I seek new rules: Begin again in a wholly new context.

  136. cling to the worst: Cf. Ovid, Metamorphses VII, 20–21: “I see, approving, / Things that are good, and yet I follow worse ones.” With this image he returns to the beginning of the poem and the thoughts that seize him.

  265 SONNET

  As if all the self-abasement and desire for improvement of poem 264 were “wind,” this sonnet surrenders itself once again to his tenacious craving. Noting that Arnaut Daniel influenced this poetry, Petrarch himself dated it 21 September 1350, “the third hour of Tuesday, St. Matthew’s Day.” Laura died in 1348, yet she seems very much alive in these lines.

  1. a cruel will: Cf. 264.62: “killing it makes it grow back the stronger.”

  4. shall have my spoils: The conflict between the sweet voice and the harsh will be won by the less worthy opponent, and her “form” will end up lacking soul or humanity.

  bring her little honor: Will not have the ring of truth.

  7. I weep: His grieving is undifferentiated.

  11. wear its way: His modus operandi: persistence, constancy, even contumacy.

  266 SONNET

  This sonnet, written to Giovanni Colonna in 1345, mentions the eighteenth year of his love—two years earlier, therefore, than his last “anniversary” sonnet, poem 221. On a graph, these commemorations show a zigzag of advances and retreats that may comment on the poet’s experience of his time. In 1366 Petrarch transcribed in Vatican 3195 a sonnet written by Sennuccio del Bene in response to these words.

  1. Dear lord of mine: Giovanni Colonna.

  3–4. but fortune now …/… overthrows me: In February of 1345 Petrarch fled Parma because of war, injuring himself in a fall from a horse, and for some months lived a generally disrupted existence (Familiares V, 10).

  7. two lights: The two people dearest to him are Laura and the cardinal himself.

  11. it was I, myself: Cf. 264.111–112.

  12. A Laurel: Symbol of his ever-renewing love for Laura.

  a Column noble: The cardinal, as well as the Colonna family.

  13. fifteen years: The length of time he has known Giovanni Colonna.

  eighteen the other: He first saw Laura in 1327.

  14. I’ve kept inside me: Kept
in his heart, corresponding to line 2.

  267 SONNET

  Here Laura’s death is finally acknowledged, although it is not until the next canzone that the words “Madonna è morta” appear. Petrarch himself noted in his copy of Virgil’s works that she dies on 6 April 1348 and he received word of it the following 19 May. He also recorded the date he first saw her, the same 6 April at the same hour of the day twenty-one years before. Foreshadowing of Laura’s disappearance from the world began well in advance of this sonnet, however, alternating with reappearances and “lapses” in chronology that continue to puzzle readers. This physical death scatters to the wind the poet’s hope of possessing her, but her power of attraction will endure in other forms.

  4. could tame: It is he she tamed and filled with courage.

  5–6. arrow/of death: Of Love. Cf. 2.7.

  7. Royal soul: Highest good.

  worthiest of all: Cf. poems 225, 260, and 263.

  8. joined us so late: Born into a corrupt age that could not appreciate her.

  11. I suffer less: Any other pain is insignificant.

  13. the time I left: Cf. 250.9.

  14. all those words were scattered: She did not seem to hear them.

  268 CANZONE

  This canzone mourning the death of Laura was painstakingly revised over the years, beginning with its first drafting sometime before 28 November 1349 and ending with its transcription in 1356. The poetry shows the effects of a long period of reflection, his pain having been internalized and made habitual in a new mode of dignified resignation. Technically, the canzone shows great simplicity and clarity of design. Petrarch asks Love’s advice and receives it: do not abandon the high goal you set for yourself upon first loving Laura. Dante’s influence pervades his argument here, particularly the events of the Vita nuova.

  1. Can you advise me, Love?: Cf. 264.135: “I seek new rules by which to lead my life.” Petrarch may have found Catullus’s line, “Ibimus quaesitum: verum, ne ipsi teneamur, Formido. Quid ago? Da, Venus, consilium,” in Gellius, Node atticae XIX, 9, 25 (Zingarelli).