Petrarch (75 page)

11.
you hold both keys:
She decides whether he experiences pain or joy, heaven or hell. Cf. 29.56, and Dante,
Inferno
XIII, 58.

14.
anything from you:
Even when she disdains him, he has been blessed by loving her.

The intimacy he revealed in the preceding ballata becomes playful identification in
this sonnet. He has created her, cruelty and all, just as she alone has inspired him.

The date of transcription on Vat. Lat. 3196, now completely illegible, at one time
read 16 November 1337, according to Ubaldini.

4.
my pure and worthy prayers:
Cf. poems 61 and 62.

6–7.
that first laurel/grafts many branches:
Many styles, diverse traditions, creating new life out of old wood.

8.
this is just reason:
His being daunted by her would merit true disdain.

9.
a noble plant:
The laurel.

arid ground:
In a breast devoid of love for her.

12.
since your destiny prohibits you:
Only he can know her and celebrate her, as a unique poet in a unique age.

14.
the place you stay:
In his heart and thoughts.

is not always so hateful:
The line reminded Vellutello of the exiled Ovid,
Epistulae ex Ponto
II, 8, when he sent a portrait to Augustus and Livia: “Denique, quae mecum est et
erit sine fine, cavet ne sit in inviso vestra figura loco.”

A slave to Love, he can only hope that his fire will exceed expectations when tested.

1.
badly prepared:
Cf. poems 2 and 3.

4.
sits upon its summit:
Has taken dominion over his thoughts.

5.
force of his file:
Wearing down his resistance.

6.
strength or worthiness:
An allusion to 2.5, “My strength was concentrated in my heart.”

7.
hardened heart:
Cf. 2.7–8.

8.
when one thinks he’s above it:
He esteemed himself above an earthly love.

10.
except to test:
His vital power is measured in terms of her response, much or little.

13.
now in moderation:
Hardly worthy of admiration. Cf. 170.14.

Written during his first residence in Vaucluse, perhaps in 1340, this sestina echoes
in its imagery and design Dante’s canzone “Io son venuto al punto de la rota.” The
state of the lover’s heart and mind is like a valley among mountains about to be swept
by a winter storm.

1–6.
The heavy air:
Winter settles in on mountains and valleys like a gravitational force.

2.
furious winds:
Concentrating their anger in barely forming precipitation.

8.
thoughts … in such a fog:
In poem 37 the distant fog blocked him from the sight of her. Here he is in the midst
of it.

9.
sometimes rises:
Fog that rises from the land like a miasma. He may allude to intrigue in the papal
court at Avignon.

10.
closed… against the loving winds:
Cf. 28.10.

11.
stagnating rivers:
The rivers running through the valley feed into the Rhône near Avignon, whose corruption
Petrarch later attacks. Cf. Virgil,
Georgics
IV, 288, “effuso stagnantem flumine Nilum.”

14.
warmth makes disappear:
The abrupt tone imitates the sudden arrival of spring following on the heels of a
scirocco.

17.
the fury of the winds:
Spring must follow this tempest.

19.
no help for me:
Cf. 9.14.

24.
I’ll see dried up:
Before she thaws, the impossible must happen.

25.
As long as to the sea:
Cf. Eccles. 1:7, “Omnia flumina intrant in mare; et mare non redundat: ad locum,
unde exeunt flumina, revertuntur, et iterum fluant.”

26.
and beasts:
All beasts seeking refuge, all poets seeking truth.

29.
in her lovely breast:
Her hardened heart is constituted of ice; his of fire.

32.
between two rivers:
The Sorgue and the Durance.

35.
her shade:
He shadowed her forth wherever he was, giving form to his vision.

36.
shattered fog:
Nor did Jove’s bolts of lightning affect him since he was protected by her immortal
shade. Cf. Dante,
Inferno
XXIV, 149.

38.
on that day:
When he first saw her.

39.
sunlight opens:
Cf. Virgil,
Georgics
II, 317: “Rura gelu tunc claudit hiems.”

This and the next two sonnets, written during Petrarch’s Roman journey in late 1336
and 1337, are a unit and speak of a comic struggle between two styles of love.

1.
On the left bank:
If traveling from Provence, the western shore of Italy.

2.
where the waves weep … break:
Cf. Virgil,
Georgics
I, 334: “Nunc nemora ingenti vento, nunc litora plangunt.” He plays on the dual meanings
of
piangere
(to weep) and its Latin form
piangere,
“to beat the head and breast as a sign of grief.”

3.
that proud branch:
The laurel. Cf. 24.1.

5–6.
boiling/in the remembrance:
His love igniting his fire amidst all this water.

6.
her golden tresses:
Her curling hair is recalled rather than the eyes. Zingarelli notes that the more
spiritual eyes are off-limits because “boiling” has infernal significance.

7.
a stream the grass was hiding:
Cf. Dante,
Vita nuova
IX, XIX. Petrarch is probably referring to Tuscan love poetry with its highly sexual
imagery. Cf. poem 69.

8.
fell, dead weight:
Cf. Dante,
Inferno
V, 142: “come corpo morto cade.”

12.
changed my style:
From having wet eyes to having wet feet, that is, turning tearful thoughts to verse
(
piedi
) in this style.

14.
the others dry:
His tearful eyes would dry in a less cruel climate.

“Jousting” thoughts are the subject of this sonnet directed to one or all of the Colonna
family during Petrarch’s sojourn in Rome. Head and heart struggle for supremacy.

1.
The sacred sight:
Of ancient Rome and, by contrast, the ruins of present-day Roman religion and culture.

2.
the evil of my past:
Cf. 53.77 and the thousand years of darkness resulting from the move of the Church
to Byzantium.

3.
Get up, you fool:
As God ordered Ezekiel to do in the Old Testament.

5.
another one:
The
amoroso pensiero,
now calling him back to Laura.

10.
turn cold as ice:
From fear, compassion, or piety.

12.
the first returns:
The voice of his conscience.

and this one:
The one nearest his heart, the voice of Love, gives way to the stronger voice he
hears in Rome.

14.
on more than one occasion:
When one thought cedes to the other, a turning results. Compare sequences such as
poems 54–55 and 62–63.

On the trip from Marseilles to Rome, on the margin of the Tuscan coast, new voices
make him realize the futility of struggling against Love.

1.
any human means:
Any advice from his senses.

3.
unkept promises:
Promises of mercy. Cf. 56.4

4.
fierceness of your claw:
Through struggle he has felt himself ever more firmly caught in love’s grip. The
word
artiglio
(claw), has the figurative sense of predation.

6.
the person who’s concerned:
To whom it happened, himself.

8.
by Tuscan shores:
Italy’s western coast, opposite old Etruria.

9.
I fled your hands:
He thought to escape his pain by leaving her behind.

10.
unknown and quite unusual:
Like
meraviglio
and
novamente
in line 5, these words speak of the uniqueness of this pilgrimage to Rome.

11.
the winds… driving me:
The force of events.

12.
out of nowhere:
I’ non so donde
suggests irony. These disembodied voices with messages of love resemble siren calls
from an unexpected source.

13.
from one’s destiny:
He, a Tuscan himself, must follow in that poetic tradition.

14.
one cannot fight it off:
Although he suggests that the voice of his conscience (the winner in sonnet 68.12)
ultimately lost the battle, it may be that he has begun to learn the science of bringing
the ship to port by negotiating the waves (tacking into the wind).

This canzone serves as an introduction to the three that follow, the so-called “canzoni
of the eyes.” They were all written in Avignon before 1337.

Poem 69, a sonnet, spoke of Tuscan love poetry as a remedy for the motion of the sea
waves. This canzone brings that art into steady focus by weaving together verses from
the works of five different love poets, concluding with the first line of Petrarch’s
poem 23, a canzone. Each stanza builds momentum on the strength of the one before
it, summarizing as it goes the thought of the poet quoted in its own last line. In
this way, the argument moves forward as if on waves, the final line of the canzone
being the crest of the next wave, giving the effect of a manifesto.

1.
Oh what to do:
Lasso me
carries a sense of limpness, echoed in the last lines of the canzone.

all that hope of mine:
All the talent he possesses. He stands ready, but to what end?

4.
cast so many prayers:
In so many different directions.

6.
an end to my poor words:
That Love no longer deny him access to her. 8.
it please him: Non gravi,
that is, that it not weigh him down and cause him to be late or slow.

10.
It’s right:
This line is quoted by Petrarch in Provençal: “Drez et rayson es qu’ieu chant em
demori.” It is the first verse of a canzone attributed either to Arnaut Daniel, the
twelfth-century poet, or to William of St. Gregory, and its appearance at the end
of the first stanza gives first place to that tradition.

14.
equal to my many woes:
To make equal is to bring into balance, a goal he seeks to achieve by “changing style”
(cf. 67.12)

15.
those holy eyes:
This is the first time he has called Laura’s eyes holy.

16–17.
receive delight…/… of mine:
That his poetry might please her to the point where she herself would sing it.

17.
some sweet words:
Cf. Dante,
Purgatorio
XXVI, 112, where the poet Guido Guinizelli’s words are so described.

18.
above all lovers:
True happiness would come if he could elevate his poetry to match the holiness of
Laura.

20.
A lady begs me:
This is the first line of the famous canzone by Guido Cavalcanti, “Donna mi priega.”

21–24.
that step by step have led … :
He ascends with the measured steps of the philosopher, as did Cavalcanti.

23.
hard as stone:
Smalto,
meaning enameled and fired.

24.
on my own:
Without her guidance.

29.
hard and bitter now:
Mirroring hers. His language becomes militant, shading into Dante’s.

30.
So in my speech I now wish to be harsh:
This is the first line of one of Dante’s “stony rhymes,” a canzone.

31.
What am I saying?:
Cf. Virgil,
Aeneid VI,
595: “Quid loquor? aut ubi sum? Quae mentem insania mutat? Infelix Dido!” He recollects
himself, as Aeneas did after Dido’s suicide.

33–34.
My mind could run … :
He is not fated to be unhappy. Cf. line 10.

35.
if mortal veil it is:
The perceptions of the body, as well as the body itself.

36–37.
stars / or any lovely thing:
Stars signify a fixed reality; things a reality in flux.

39.
burden of the pleasure:
The sweet weight of his pledge.

40.
Her sweet presence, her soft and lovely glance:
This is the first line of a canzone by the Florentine poet Cino da Pistoia, a contemporary
of Dante and Petrarch, writing on the occasion of the death of his lady.

41–50.
All things adorning … :
The final stanza, climaxing with the first line of Petrarch’s first canzone (poem
23), begins with a thanksgiving of two lines and follows with two-line refrains of
each of the preceding stanzas, giving the canzone a form which links beginning with
end. The critical opinion that Petrarch wrote the canzone with the intention of outdoing
his predecessors is not supported by the text. Rather, he identifies his own mental
processes with that of each poet, producing a cumulative effect.

43.
but I:
He returns to the idea of the pilgrim in need of guidance.