Petrarch (71 page)

1.
A young maiden:
The line echoes one of Dante’s
rime petrose,
“Al poco giorno e al gran cerchio d’ombra.” Line 38 in Dante reads: “Sotto un bel
verde la giovane donna.” The imagery of this sestina closely resembles Dante’s.

2.
I saw:
Referring always to his first encounter with Laura.

3.
unstruck by sun:
As if on the north flank of an alpine peak. The first stanza makes a comparison between
this frozen mountain and the young woman under the laurel tree.

5.
I keep her in my eyes:
A vision or memory that perpetually sustains him.

7.
reach the shore:
Figuratively, the end of life, the plain of Revelation. Petrarch exploits the several
literal and figurative meanings of the word
riva
(shore).

8.
when no green leaf:
He speaks of the impossible, since the green of the laurel is immortal. Cf. Rev.
7 and 8, in which the destruction of the tree, the drying of the eyes, and the promise
of peace all figure.

10.
the fire freeze and blazing snow:
The quintessential Petrarchan conceit to which he returns again and again.

11–12.
upon my head…/… await the longed-for day:
If his hair is sparse, the Day of Judgment is imminent; if thick, his willingness
to wait is prodigious.

15.
with dark or with white hair:
Petrarch makes frequent reference to his hair or “pelt” changing color. This suggests
he is undergoing a period of celibacy. Cf. 23.60.

16.
I’ll chase the shadow:
The shadow signifies nature as creation imitating ideal form.

20.
in the world’s first years:
He compares Laura with Eve and all her descendants, finding her superior. Such praise
is traditional and obligatory.

21.
that melt me:
The melting snow continues the alpine metaphor, an April thaw bringing floodlike
waters to the plain. Cf. 23.117.

22.
tearful shore:
Spring draws lamentations from the lover.

24.
diamond branches and golden hair:
Diamonds convey strength, hardness, coldness; but they also produce prismatic effects,
and along with gold hair, recall the apocalyptic vision of Ezekiel.

25–26.
I fear that I will change … :
The lines are ambivalent and imply that true repentance will come very late for him.

27.
my idol who is carved:
Scolpito
(carved) has a root sense of “restored to wholeness.”

28.
seven years:
The span of years since his first encounter with Laura.

35.
of someone born:
Posterity, which will heed him. Cf. poem 1.

36.
cared–for laurel:
One that is cultivated, pruned, and fertilized.

37.
All gold and topaz:
The Italian
l’auro
is a quasi-pun on the name Laura. Like the prismatic diamond the topaz was considered
a most precious stone, noted for reflecting colors across the spectrum, as snow does,
seen in the reflected light of the sun.

In 1334 a drought and epidemic threatened the population of Avignon, and in this sonnet
Laura has been ill. Petrarch’s imagery recalls Dante’s vision in
Paradiso,
taken from Plato’s
Timaeus,
where souls are assigned in Heaven according to a degree of blessedness.

4.
heaven’s most blessèd part:
The Empyrean, beyond the stars, where the most blessed dwell.

5–14.
Should she dwell … :
He imagines the soul of Laura hesitating among the stars or planets.

6.
would lose its color:
Would pale at her splendor, herself a sun.

7.
in admiration of her:
All their combined light will vie with that of the sun. Cf. Dante,
Paradiso
I, 64–65 and 92–93.

9.
under the fourth nest:
Under the sun, in the region of Venus. Cf. poems 287 and 302, where Petrarch places
Laura in Venus’s domain.

10.
each of the three:
Venus, Mercury, and the Moon, those astral bodies closer to Earth upon which she
would shed her light.

11.
she alone would have fame and renown:
Those qualities for which he vaunts her, honest love and wisdom, would surpass in
the world’s mind even these heavenly bodies.

12.
fifth sphere:
Mars, antithetical to Laura.

13.
should she fly up higher:
Completing the oblique journeys through the sixth and seventh planets, Jupiter and
Saturn, and all the stars beyond, to the Empyrean.

This interior dialogue between his soul and his thoughts detaches them from a frail
mortal body, like Laura, threatened with illness.

1.
the last day:
Laura’s illness brings him close to the possibility of his own premature death.

3.
running swift and light:
Cf. 6.2–4.

4.
my hope in him:
In time.

5.
We won’t talk much of love:
His days of writing poetry are limited.

9.
falls that hope:
In earthly fulfillment.

12.
then clearly we shall see:
At the end of life he will be able to judge that life, as he indicated in 23.31.

This is the first of many poems in which Laura appears to the poet in a dream.

1.
star of love:
Venus has risen, with a simultaneous clearing of the sky at dawn.

3–4.
was the other / … Juno with jealousy:
Referring to Ursa Major, the star into which Callisto was transformed by Jove after
Juno turned her into a bear (Ovid,
Metamorphoses
II, 405).

5.
the poor old woman:
An old housekeeper, going about her duties without regard for herself.

7.
piercing lovers:
Separating at dawn. Cf. Dante,
Purgatorio
VIII, 4, and
Paradiso
XXVIII, 45, for the image, “love that pierces.”

9.
by now cut to the quick:
His hope nearly burnt out, like a candle stump.

10–11.
not by the usual way:
Not by his eyes but in a dream. He cried himself to sleep.

12.
How changed:
From the severity of her illness.

14.
not denied you yet:
“Do not judge yourself prematurely.”

According to Wilkins, this sonnet was the initial poem of the first collection Petrarch
made of his verse in 1342; the collection contained a number of sonnets and half of
poem 23, a canzone. Probably written early (with certainty before 1337), the poem
was transcribed at the later date with these words written above it: “ceptù trascribi
et incep. ab hoc loco, 1342, Aug. 21, hora 6.” Its invocational qualities place it
in the tradition of classical dedications to the sun god.

1.
if the lovely wish still lives:
The yearning of Apollo for Daphne in Ovid’s myth (
Metamorphoses
I, 452).

2.
Thessalian wave:
The waters of the Peneus, where Daphne was transformed into the laurel tree.

5.
lazy frost:
Apollo’s rays have been too weak to burn away the cold that lies upon the land. The
image recalls poem 7 and “gluttony, sleep, pillows of idleness.” The connection between
frost, gluttony, and idleness is made by Dante (
Inferno
XXIV, 1–15 and 46–51) and laments a poor climate for great poetry.

6.
conceal your face:
The sun’s rays are covered by clouds.

7.
honored, sacred leaf:
Poetry, the
lauro,
is threatened now by loss of inspiration.

8.
was snared:
As a bird is caught, or Daphne herself, as a consequence of possessive desire. The
metaphor appears also in 83.6, 99.8, 189.3, 195.3.

10.
your bitter life:
His love for Daphne unrequited.

11.
make clear:
Apollo may return poetry to its former healthy state in his capacity as healer. “Impression”
has the sense of “wounds.”

14.
her arms casting their shade:
As a reincarnation of Minerva, goddess of wisdom.

This sonnet is considered a high point of the early verse. It seems a profound departure
from poem 34.

1.
I measure out:
Reproduced in the cadence of these lines.

2.
with slow, late steps:
Slow to repent.

4.
left within the sand:
Fleeing to a completely undiscovered place or time.

5.
I find no other shield:
He knows his burning love is visible in his bearing, as Dante did in
Vita nuova
VII.

7–8.
all bereft of joy:
There is a suggestion here of ambivalence. How he appears may reveal and conceal
at the same time.

12–13.
a path / too harsh:
Words that echo Dante,
Inferno
I, 5.

14.
to speak to me:
Sapegno refers to this “whispered confession” of his slavery to Love as a morbid
condition. Or this loving whisper may belie his bearing “bereft of joy” in line 7
with its note of suppressed exultation.

He has been so ill his body seems more dead than alive. The tone of the sonnet suggests
that he writes to a friend to let him know he survived.

4.
loathsome limbs:
Racked with illness, either spiritual or physical.

5–6.
a passage / from grief to grief:
From misery to eternal punishment.

7.
still closed to me:
To his passing from life to death.

8.
half cross over:
Wishing that he might die. Cf. Dante,
Inferno
XXXIV, 25: “I did not die—I was not living either!”

9.
cord:
Of Love, which would deliver the coup de grace.

11.
stained with others’ blood:
Of other lovers.

12.
I beg Love:
The unorthodoxy of this prayer to Love has been noted.

13.
of her own color:
The paleness of death.

14.
who forgets:
Death failed to take him.

Because Petrarch noted next to poem 38 that it was written during his voyage to Rome
in 1337, when he was absent from Avignon for several months, it has been assumed that
the separation he speaks of here resulted from that trip. The changing length of line
in this canzone imitates the action, like the rapid rotating of a spindle and stretching
of thread.

3.
if help does not come:
Some healing force.

8.
until now:
Since first seeing her, amorous hope has been all that sustained him. Cf. 34.9.

18.
terminate the journey:
Referring to the movement of Phoebus’s chariot across the sky.

20.
how I race to death:
Cf. Dante,
Purgatorio
XXXIII, 54: “of Life that is merely a race to Death.” See also St. Augustine,
De Civitate Dei XIII,
10.

24.
long and coiling path:
The spiraling path of the zodiac which the sun follows.

30.
without power:
The line has sagged, the bowstring is no longer taut. “To fly with my desire” refers
to the flight of the spirit toward blessedness (cf. Dante,
Purgatorio
XI, 38).

35.
the keys:
To paraphrase Castelvetro: “To think of her eyes is to open myself to joy.”

40.
having seen them:
He may have seen her only once with that loving expression that unlocked his soul.

45.
make all of my darkness:
Cf. Isa. 58:10, “Et tenebrae tuae erunt sicut meridies.”

46.
remembering may consume me more:
In his present hell he would know what he has lost.

49–50.
can renew/that ardent wish:
In 23.4 he sang so that his pain might be made less bitter. Here he seeks renewal
of strength in an inner dialogue with his wretchedness.

56.
Why not choose:
He could, instead of freshening his pain by speaking of it, become mute, with possibly
more grievous effects.

62.
savage sweetness:
Cf. 23.149. A sharp passionate flooding of memory results from these words.

69.
thrives on weeping:
The nourishment that he derives from his pain is well known to those who find solace
in Provençal love poetry. Bernard de Ventadorn sang of it. Francesca lamented it,
for all eternity. Zingarelli comments that Petrarchism is founded on this famous line,
largely misunderstood.

77–78.
I often run and hide/therein:
In the heart, the space within where he converses with his soul (
ragionar).

80.
they were my guides:
The eyes were the threshold and the door through which love entered his heart. Cf.
3.11.

81–89.
The golden hair …:
He turns to the praise of Laura.

89.
are gone now:
Mi son tolte,
literally, “taken from me.”

92.
the graciousness of her angelic greeting:
Petrarch speaks for the first time here of her resemblance to an angel.

93.
wake up my heart:
The effect of the greeting was to awaken in him a force or power (
vertute
) greater than all pain or pleasure.