Petrarch (82 page)

93.
What good did it do you?:
She addresses mankind (
miseri
).

94.
possessed the defect:
Better that they had been merely human.

95.
Beloved and lovely:
In the Golden Age.

97.
this one beats her wings:
Like the soul desiring to be reunited to God, Virtue yearns to depart the world.

99.
am shadow:
The visible manifestation of the soul of mankind for whom virtue was intentionally
created.

100.
understand in brief:
Cf. line 38. He has heard all that is befitting his years.

103–105.
garland of green laurel … :
Crowning him as a gesture of faith. Cf. 359.49–52.

106.
words obscure:
Their true import is merely hidden, as the lady has demonstrated.

108.
another messenger:
Another canzone in which truth may be less obscured by shadow.

112.
deceive me:
“Deceive” makes it clear that truth is still ambiguous in the mind of the lover.

In the final months of 1343, while Petrarch served Pope Clement VI as ambassador to
Queen Giovanna I in Naples, rumors of his death circulated in Italy. Petrarch composed
this sonnet in response to a long poem of Maestro Antonio de’ Beccari da Ferrara that
was written to lament the passing of the poet laureate and to praise him. The sonnet,
standing singly between a canzone and a madrigal, serves notice that Petrarch is not
yet dead, either as man or as poet.

3.
took them in:
This quatrain may be a joking allusion to the length of Beccari’s canzone (Carducci).

5.
those final bites:
Death is a beast devouring him bit by bit. Cf. Dante,
Purgatorio
VII, 31.

7. not yet felt:
He lives, although at one point he nearly died, unaware of his peril.

8.
threshold:
The image may have its antecedent in a work of Guittone d’Arezzo: “Ratto son corso
già sino alie porte.”

9.
I came back:
Cf. 54.10.

12.
I could not read:
Predict the hour of his death.

14.
worthy to be so honored:
There may be some irony in this closing line, since ill-will toward Petrarch following
his coronation may have been the cause of the rumors of his death.

This madrigal, the last of four in the
Canzoniere
, replaced a ballata that appeared in the First Form of the collection, “Donna mi
vene spesso nella mente,” in which Petrarch seemed to speak of loving two women, leading
some readers to conclude he had been unfaithful to Laura. The romantic longing of
“Donna mi vene” contrasts sharply with the playful sophistication of this madrigal,
whose appearance here may illustrate yet another stylistic turning.

1.
Now, Love:
Bantering, taking Love to task for his powerlessness in the face of the young girl’s
virtue. Cf. Dante,
Rime,
“Amor, tu vedi ben che questa donna / la tua virtù non cura in alcun tempo.”

2.
disdains your rule:
She is detached from mortal love.

my harm:
His painful state, the wound of his love.

3.
between two foes:
Between Love and himself.

4.
armor:
In a state of readiness.

in braids and dress:
Cf. 29.1–3.

7–8.
mercy / still keeps your bow intact:
If hope that she will relent still keeps Love strong enough to make the assault.
Cf. 119.28–30.

9.
take vengeance:
Redeeming his heart by causing her to fall in love. Cf. poem 94.

An anniversary poem commemorating 6 April 1344, three years after his coronation and
at the age of forty.

1.
heavens have revolved:
Turning through the signs of the zodiac seventeen times.

2.
first burned:
First saw Laura.

5.
the saying is:
The Latin proverb “Lupus pilum mutat non mentem.”

6–7.
senses slacken / … intense:
This love of his surpasses the sensual.

8.
heavy veil:
The body, whose pull draws the soul into shadow. Cf. Virgil,
Aeneid
VI, 732.

10.
flight:
When he looks “on high,” charting his course in soul time. Cf. Cicero,
Somnium Scipionis.

11.
I step out:
In Dante,
Purgatorio
XXVI, the souls of the lustful, in particular the
love poets, do penance in the wall of flames from which they are careful not to step
until their time has come to ascend the mountain.

13.
please these eyes:
Appear free and purified of the shadow.

Thinking more about the kind of love he saw in Laura’s eyes reminds him of the truth
of what he has heard, that in Paradise such freedom is possible.

2.
mist of love:
Cf. Dante,
Inferno
V, 133, where Francesca describes a similar blushing and paling just before succumbing
to love.

3.
nobly was presented:
With such majesty through his eyes.

4.
he went up:
Her color was matched by his as he paled at what he saw.

5–6.
how in Paradise / one sees:
How a virtuous love expresses itself and is instantly perceived by a kindred soul.

8.
but I saw it:
Because he believed himself to be the object of her love.

9–11.
compared to what:
Cf. Cavalcanti: “Cotanto d’umiltà donna mi pare / Che ciascun’ altra in ver di lei
chiamo ira.”

13.
it seemed to me:
She spoke not with words but by her expressions, as one communicates in Paradise.

14.
Who takes away:
What shadow stands between them?

Illustrating the fragile nature of his illusions in the preceding sonnet, this finds
his hope slipping from his grasp.

4.
reached the other shore:
Who have died.

6.
of any comfort:
Of the solace that comes from being near her.

foolish mind:
Lacking foresight.

9.
the sweet days:
His golden age.

11.
half of my course:
He has passed the midpoint of his life (referred to as far back as poem 54). The
equivocal rhymes
volta-volta
in lines 2 and 3 create a mirroring effect.

12.
made of diamond:
Cf. 30.24 and 51.9.

but of glass:
Like a mirror he holds up to himself. Cf. 105.15.

14.
split down the middle:
Disconnect or become regressive because of their inherent weakness.

Once more she veils herself against him. In the first part of this canzone, language
seems to bind itself, denying itself eloquence; but toward the end, as Petrarch turns
his thoughts away from his “untuned” feelings to the green shore that has always been
his friend, a loosening and flow return to his verse. The poem acts as a prologue
to the one
to follow, like a rough stone compared with the brilliance he subsequently achieves.
The poetry is packed with consonants and with
S
-impure words that structurally imply denial.

2.
sharp and constant:
The pain of his amorous thought is like the continual presence of an arrow in his
side. Cf. Dante,
Rime,
“Così nel mio parlar.”

3.
in the right color:
In a poetic mode suited to his feelings.

6.
where he sleeps:
In her heart.

11.
stands there:
As if apart. The standing figure contrasts with the seated maiden in line 21.

12.
no trace:
Dramma,
as in every dram of his blood. Cf. Dante,
Purgatorio
XXX, 46–47: “Not one drop of blood / is left inside my veins that does not throb,”
an image taken from Virgil.

13.
flame and fire:
Purifying in nature.

19.
natural goodness:
The surface harshness of his canzone will conceal the simple truth at its heart.

21.
sits beneath their shade:
Love in her heart is shaded by her lowered brow.

26.
for it is crude:
Unpracticed, unlovely.
Scaltro,
which appears only once, is a word containing its own opposite.

29.
no other arms:
No defense but love poems.

30.
come and break:
Squadre,
breaking into four pieces. The word also has the figurative sense of examining a
thing very carefully from all angles.

31.
heart… that’s stone:
Cf. Dante,
Rune,
“Così nel mio parlar,” and
Inferno
VI, 18. Unexpressed grief pools in the heart and petrifies.

34–35.
paints … / and talks:
His soul conversing with his memory.

37.
untuned:
Unable now to express his thoughts openly, he is “distempered.” Ice and fire are
at odds in his heart. Cf. 73.7–15.

41.
tongue untied:
In the last stanza his verse was congested with rough words like
scaltro, squadre, smalto, sfogarme, siempre,
and
scorso.
Mazzotta relates this passage to St. Augustine’s theory of the inadequacy of language
to express forms of desire. Cf.
Confessiones
I, 7, 2.

43–44.
leads me / to speak:
His need is stronger than the obstacles he himself creates with his rough words.

47.
in her face alone:
If all she cares for is her surface beauty. Cf. poem 45, where he makes the face
of his loved one a metaphor for narcissistic art. In his
Summa Theologica
St. Thomas Aquinas made the distinction between “perfectio prima” and “perfectio
secunda” that may apply here, creating a dynamic between art for art’s sake and its
moral purpose.

49.
you, green shore:
His taking-off point, the verge of the imagination.

54.
never touched the earth:
Never brought earth or flesh to life in such a manner.

55.
marked by hers:
Cf. poem 110, where he saw her shadow stamped on the earth.

60.
lovely footprints still:
Some new earthly traces.

63.
where it could rest:
In some poetic Eden fed by clear, peaceful waters. The expression
acquetarsi,
with its roots in water, is suggestive of the first line of poem 126. Cf. also
pacificato,
114.13.

67.
sweet brightness:
Along the “green shore.”

68.
That lovely light:
Vago lume;
here
vago
takes its coloration from light. In line 64
(“vague and unsure”),
vaga
is colored by
dubbiosa
.

once struck:
The word is meant to wound.

70–71.
roots / in that same ground:
In Latin the word for “root” (
radix, radice
) is related to “foot” (
pes, pedis),
whose traces he seeks in this landscape. The memory of Laura seated—whether real
or imagined—connects him with a lost paradise.

73.
and sometimes made a seat:
Sometimes reigned.

75.
no part is lost:
Because he reproduces her in grass, flowers, bank, and river.

76.
would be worse:
Alluding to original sin. He bends to the mystery.

79–81.
O my poor little thing …:
The congedo apologizes for the unpolished verse preceding, as if to a songbird whose
wings do not have power enough to soar up and out of the tangled underbrush of the
woods. In this manner he looks ahead to poem 126.

One of the most admired works of Petrarch, this canzone brings the figure of Laura
into vivid focus against the background of his memory. Although nearly following the
rhyme scheme of poem 125 (the congedo differs slightly), its movement and sound are
very different, creating a soft and amorous, at times mournfully sighing effect. Wilkins
dates this poem and 125 from Petrarch’s residence in Vaucluse between 1337 and 1341.
The canzoni to follow, poems 127–129, he dates to the years 1343–45.

3.
rest her lovely body:
Although in line 7 she is fully dressed, early commentators argued over whether she
first appears naked in the waters. Castelvetro (1582) thought modesty would forbid
this; Carducci (1899) disagreed. The naked Laura appears as Diana in 23.147–151.

4.
kind branch:
The laurel. Its branches are low enough for her to lean against, and “kind” for having
supported her.

5. (
I sigh …):
Parenthetical exclamations like this appear in the first four stanzas (see lines
15, 33, and 41).

7.
her gown:
Cf. 23.34; see also 28.41, referring to
santissimo Elicona.

11.
opened my heart:
Cf. 23.73, “m’aperse il petto.”

14.
If it … :
If fate and the wheeling heavens determine that he should die without having received
her mercy.

17.
let grace:
By the merciful intervention of some other power.