Petrarch

  12. crown and palm: The laurel crown is the symbol of poetic triumph, the palm, of victory over self. Cf. 359.49.

  13. famous in the world: Because of her example.

  14. my own mad passion: His furor. Cf. Virgil, Aeneid IV, 101: “Ardet amans Dido, traxitque per ossa furorem.”

  296 SONNET

  This sonnet, the third in this series, returns to the old theme of love’s prison.

  1. I often would accuse: Cf. Dante, Inferno XXXI, 76, speaking of Nimrod: “His words accuse him.”

  4. blow … enclosed: The original wound dealt his heart by Love, hidden from the world.

  6–8. bright thread/… golden arrow: An underlying conceit of this sonnet is its interconnection of root words, in fuso, troncaste, attorcea, stame, laccio, morte. Together they create a dense layering of metaphors, as if he were using all the arrows in his quiver at once.

  6. spindle: Clotho spins the thread of life, Lachesis determines the length of it, and Atropos cuts it off.

  6–7. soft, bright thread/ around my bonds: Laura’s insinuating beauty around the chains of his love.

  7. rare golden arrow: Laura’s glance that enamored him and set his unique love in motion.

  8. beyond all limits: Referring to the connection between love and death, in which the poet finds metaphoric freedom.

  12. choosing rather to moan: Literally, “to draw moans” from himself and perhaps from others.

  14. such a knot: All the curbs he must put on himself in order to serve her.

  297 SONNET

  Although the lovely form of Laura is “scattered and disjoined” from her blessed soul by death, he follows the advice of Love in poem 268 and consecrates her name.

  1. Two formidable rivals: Cf. Ovid, Heroides XVI, 288; and Juvenal, Satires X, 297.

  2. in such concordance: Reconciled. Cf. 112.7.

  3. conflict in her holy soul: Of Beauty against Chastity (onestà). The joining of the words anima santa has not occurred before.

  5. scattered and disjoined: Cf. poems 261 and 262, where he combined these qualities first in Laura and then in Lucretia.

  6. one is in Heaven: Chastity.

  7. one under ground: Beauty, her body sotterra.

  8. darts of love: Reproving glances. Cf. 229.8 for another use of punta.

  10. came from a high place: From high intellect (Leopardi).

  11. it still shows signs: She still excites his desire.

  298 SONNET

  To demonstrate what happens when mind is sundered from body, he finds only harsh disparities as far back as the first day.

  2. scattered all my thoughts: In verses sent out to the world one by one.

  3. in which I, freezing, burned: The line intentionally weakens the impact of his well-known image, the icy fire, by being once-removed from feeling in its syntax (“e spento ’l foce ove agghiacciando io arsi”).

  4. ended my repose: The conflicts of youth were heaven compared to experiences he has now.

  so full of woes: For a more felicitous use of this antithesis, see 61.5.

  5. broken the faith of amorous deceptions: Gone is the hope that his faith will ultimately be read in these love poems.

  8. painful gains: Purgatorial.

  9. so very naked: Without the beauty and wholeness of her body to give force to his words.

  10. that I envy: Cf. Dante, Inferno III, 48.

  11. fear and suffer: That his life may end in this low state.

  13. O Day: 6 April.

  299 SONNET

  He concludes his retrospective with a lament rising out of his extreme misery, yet with some of the old music of desire.

  1. Where is: The word ov’è repeated four times at the beginning of each stanza corresponds to the repetition of quanta in the next sonnet. On the page together the two sonnets create an intriguing graphic effect.

  the brow: The high source of his inspiration, like that of a god or goddess.

  slightest movement: Change of expression.

  3. lovely lashes and two stars: He moves downward over the contours of her face. Cf. poem 157.

  5. valor: Of Lauras courageous words. Cf. poem 156.

  9. gracious image of a face: Her human face beneath the divine brow.

  12. had me in her hand: Held his heart. Cf. 23.72–74.

  13–14. How much …/… miss her now: As if weighing his lack of worth, as well as the loss of her worth, in that hand.

  300 SONNET

  Seeking signs of her in his visible surroundings and unyielding Heaven, he feels death beckoning to him through the memory of her eyes. This sonnet appears in Vat. Lat. 3196 with an inscription dated 9 April 1359 that refers to sending it, along with poem 305, to a friend the following 8 October.

  1. How much: Cf. note to 299.1.

  the greedy earth: That hides away her beauty.

  3. begrudging me the air: Holding hostage the “aria” that once surrounded her person.

  4. settled for peace: Cf. 285.14.

  5. Heaven, that holds and locks: Cf. “begrudging me the air.”

  6. greedily has gathered: As if coveting her.

  8. rarely unlocks itself: The souls admitted to Heaven are elected by birth, according to a late doctrine of St. Augustine. He fears he is not one of them.

  13. my very life: The breath of Laura.

  14. lives in her lovely eyes: He envies her the power to die.

  301 SONNET

  He turns once again to Vaucluse for serenity, beauty, and joy, although he cannot share in it.

  1. so filled: Echoing back and forth unheeded.

  4. contained between green shores: Free to feed within limits.

  5. warmed and cleared: By his harsh passion. This sonnet has struck commentators as being more fit for the commedia dell’arte because of its vulgarity (Carducci).

  6. sweet path: To Avignon.

  7. hill… now displeases me: Reversing 290.1–2: “Now I’m charmed and pleased / by what displeased me most.”

  9. usual traces: The lovely shapes of Laura.

  11. home of endless grief: Emptied of sweet desire.

  12. with these steps: Following the sweet path backward.

  14. lovely spoils: Her body.

  302 SONNET

  One of the most admired of Petrarch’s sonnets, this “ecstatic vision” concludes with a question that draws the spirit downward to ground level.

  3. in the third sphere: Among the elite of virtuous lovers. Cf. poem 287.

  4. more lovely, less proud: Lovelier for being blessed, less proud because she bent to extend this courtesy to him.

  6. desire unerring: When he so chooses to redirect his steps.

  be with me again: Cf. Dante, Purgatorio XXXII, 101.

  7. fight so hard: Made him war within himself with errant desire.

  8. before night came: Before she declined into old age.

  11. my lovely veil: Her body, awaiting the Resurrection. Cf. Dante, Paradiso XIV, 61 ff.

  12. drop my hand: As if he were no longer worthy.

  14. never leaving Heaven: Dying, his desire spent and his dream dissipated.

  303 SONNET

  Summoning thoughts of Vaucluse from a time when he ranked higher in Love’s estimation, he blames destiny for the impoverished state he is in.

  3. settle all our old accounts: Love owed him something for having sold him short.

  5. blooms … Petrarch squeezes sixteen syllables into eleven beats here by ingenious use of elision, similar to this line by Arnaut Daniel: “Er vei vermeills, vertz, blaus, blancs, gruocs Vergiers, plaus, plais, tertres e vaus.”

  6. valleys enclosed: The topography of the reflecting mind. Cf. poem 129. It is interesting that all these components of his happiness are given in the plural, even “valleys enclosed.”

  10. O nymphs: Cf. 281.9. Tassoni (1609) imagined all these to be woodland deities, including dryads and satyrs, who once attended Laura.

  you whose… grassy bed: The fish within the spring; the Naiads of pagan
ism (Tassoni).

  11. liquid crystal: Waters of the mountain spring.

  13. as Death, the cause of it: Death the transvestite who changed his day to night.

  14. our destiny is with us: Written into this place that surrounds him.

  304 SONNET

  This sonnet concluded the Chigi form of the Canzoniere, put together between 1359–1362. Boccaccio was said to have destroyed some of his lyrics after reading at least parts of this manuscript.

  1–2. by loving worms … devoured: A colloquial expression for tormenting thoughts, as of one who thinks and rethinks without ever coming to a conclusion (Salvini).

  3. charming beast: Laura, fierce and elusive. Cf. 126.27–29.

  7. not so strong: Literally, scarce (scarse).

  9. That fire’s dead: His fervor died with Laura.

  meager marble: Laura’s grave or his enduring poetic output. Cf. Petrarch’s Epistles I, 1, to Barbato da Sulmona: “Nunc breve marmor habet longos quibus arsimus ignes.”

  10. had it gone on growing: Had Laura lived.

  11. as is the case with others: More fortunate lovers. The phrase was echoed by Boccaccio in the introduction to the Decameron, where he lists Dante, Cavalcanti, and Cino da Pistoia, but not Petrarch, as poets whose productivity lasted until the end of their lives.

  12. armed with the verse: Cf. poems 292 and 293. If she had lived, those “daring” poems he now finds unstable and strange might have been the focal point of a great work, perhaps the epic Petrarch yearned to write.

  14. shattered stone: Cf. poems 286 and 294. For the use of petra, see 50. 78, 51.7, and 135.16.

  305 SONNET

  He begs that she may look upon the good he has done in his solitary labors in Vaucluse but turn away from that which is unworthy in Avignon, where her body lies.

  5. false opinion: That he loved her for the beauty of her body alone.

  7. severe and cruel: Because she doubted his faith.

  now all secure: From any further ambivalence.

  8. look upon me: Turn her eyes toward this creature who can no longer do her harm.

  9. lofty rock: Gran sasso, whose high vault overlooking Vaucluse contained the treasure of his high idea. Cf. poem 117.

  11. feeds upon: Nourishes his verse.

  12. your house stands: Her grave in Avignon.

  13. abandon, leave: Disassociate herself for all time from the desecrated land.

  14. in your people: In her countrymen. Those same sinful ways with which she identified him in her false opinion continue to be practiced by the people she left behind.

  306 SONNET

  He contemplates which road to take from his impoverished state, a “desert on a cliff.”

  1. The sun: Laura. Cf. Dante, Inferno I, 16.

  3. to the highest sun: God.

  4. her own earthly jail: He has hidden his sun and her body in the graveyard of his words. Cf. 279.13–14: “into internal light / my eyes were opened.”

  5. wild beast of the woods: Animal silvestro, Dianas sacred beast, unable to speak. Cf. 23.157–160 and poem 237.

  8. desert on a cliff: Barren, where one can neither rise nor descend.

  9. all of those regions: Contrada, a naked word to describe what were, as recently as poem 303, nests of love adorned with natural beauty.

  11. Love, come with me: Be his only guide.

  12. holy footprints: Vestiges of her life and works.

  14. far from the infernal lakes: From the darkened wasteland in which he lives. Cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses IV, 309.

  307 SONNET

  All his dreams of flying high in praise of her were a frail craft in comparison with the sublime weight of the real, living Laura.

  1. my wings were strong enough to soar: His imagination, with her inspiration, could raise him and her to the greatest heights.

  2. by his who spreads them: Love.

  3. lovely knot: Her body and soul, tied in life to his mind and senses. Cf. 296.5–8.

  4. Death loosens me: Absolves him.

  6. a small branch: The analogy excludes the bird that attempts to take flight from that branch, suggesting that Petrarch had come to consider his love poems, at best, as points of departure for future poets.

  bent by a heavy burden: The accumulated weight of her beauty. Note that in 81.1, the fascio is his bundle of sins.

  7. who flies too high: Recalling the warning of Daedalus to Icarus not to fly too close to the sun.

  8. what Heaven denies: Sufficient leverage.

  10–11. as high as Nature/flew: To Heaven for her idea. Cf. 159.1.

  11. wove my sweet impediment: The “lovely knot” of line 3.

  13. adorned her: Weighted her down.

  14. my good luck: To have been at the right place at the right time to see her.

  308 SONNET

  Following Love, he attempts to bring forth her beauties with the poor materials he has at hand.

  1. exchanged Arno for Sorgue: Meeting with Boccaccio in Italy in 1351, Petrarch had refused his invitation to lecture in Florence and returned to retirement in Vaucluse that summer, when this sonnet is believed to have been written.

  2. servile riches: Money and fame laboring for a lesser goal.

  free poverty: To study and write (and to love) without gain.

  6. capture her high beauty: To reincarnate her in words.

  7. those to come: Posterity.

  10. stars that spreading: Each beauty yielding love as a blessed soul in Heaven.

  11. just one or two: The eyes of Laura.

  12. the part divine: Her soul.

  14. my courage fails: His fire is eclipsed by her glory.

  309 SONNET

  Love still urges him to bring beauty and virtue to life again for those who have not seen her truth.

  1. high, new miracle: The soul of Laura.

  2. did not want to stay: Left the world gladly.

  4. decorate the cloisters: Divine Love adorns the heavenly nest with her beauty (Gesualdo).

  5. given freedom to my tongue: When he first was moved by Love to praise her.

  8. for those who have not seen: Posterity.

  9. not yet at its highest: He has not yet even attempted the consummate subject matter. “Highest” (sommo) seems to be a non sequitur to “a thousand times in vain” in line 6, since it compares the sublime with repeated failure.

  12. think the silent truth: That is beyond language to describe, although one can know it deep inside.

  13. surpassing every style: Bringing an end to all trying.

  14. God blessed those eyes: Not only luck (307.14) but Providence conspired to bring the goddess to life in his eyes.

  310 SONNET

  Some other bird will fill the air with song and seek the consummate love poem, now that his world has become a desert. This sonnet has been translated into both music and painting.

  1. Zephyr comes back: The west wind, whose arrival brings a chill to the dimished spirit.

  2. his sweet family: In a lovely train as if springing from Zephyr’s loins (Leopardi). Cf. Virgil, Georgics II, 330: “Parturit almus ager, Zephrique tepentibus auris Laxant arva sinus.”

  3. Philomel… Procne: Cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses VI, 424–674. In Ovid’s version of the legend, Philomela was raped and her tongue cut out by Tereus, husband of Procne, her sister. In revenge Procne slaughtered her son, Itys, and with Philomela’s help cooked and served him to his father for dinner. The sisters in turn were slaughtered by Tereus and turned into nightingale and swallow respectively, and Tereus into the hoopoe, bird of war.

  4. all in whiteness and vermilion: The colors of innocence and blood as well as the flowers of May. Cf. 127.71–76 and poems 245 and 246; cf. also Virgil, Eclogues IX, 40.

  6. Jove takes joy: This signifies a felicitous positioning of the planets Jupiter and Venus; or Jove may be happy at the sight of Proserpina in the meadows before her rape by Pluto.

  7. waters, earth, and air: Cf. Virgil, Eclogues VII, 55: “Omnia nunc rident.”<
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  14. deserts now: Dead to the resurgence of beauty and spring.

  311 SONNET

  According to Carducci, this lament to the nightingale is second only to Virgil’s in the way it reproduces that bird’s music.

  1. That nightingale: Cf. 10.10–12 and 310.3 (“crying Philomel”).

  2. children: In Epistles I, 8, Petrarch praised Philomela as queen of song for the common people, the first sufferers of loss.

  4. skillfully played: As if repeating an ancient, well-learned music. Cf. Pliny, Historia naturalis X, 43: “In una perfecta musicae scientia modulatus editur sonus, et nunc continuo spiritu trahi tur in longum, nunc variatur inflexu, nunc distringitur conciso, copulatur intorto, promittitur revocato, infuscator ex inopinato; interdum et secum ipse murmurat; plenus, gravis, acutus, creber, extensus, ubi visum est vibrans, summus, medius imus.”

  6. reminding me of my harsh destiny: To speak out about loss.

  7. I have no one to blame: Cf. poem 10, where the memory of Christ’s loss evoked the “amoroso pensiero.”

  9. one who is sure: One whose faith comes too easily to him, that is, one who has not learned from history. Cf. 119.50–53.

  12. fierce fate of mine: To be witness to her lonely life and death.

  14. can please and also last: For even goddesses die. Cf. 1.4.

  312 SONNET

  As if to amplify the last line of poem 311, this sonnet is built entirely on negativities. A plazer, it follows the style of Cavalcanti.

  1–9. No lovely … : Castelvetro noted that the first quatrain speaks of things seen and the second of things heard.

  1. stars that roam: Traced by the yearning eyes of astrologers.

  2. well-oiled ships: Ready for fortuitous voyages.

  3. knights in armor: Free to roam at will.