Petrarch (87 page)

9.
my poems understood:
If her name, and his carefully polished words, were familiar to the people in these
lands.

13–14.
that fair land…/ring out:
Italy, through her vernacular language.

A sonnet reminiscent of poem 140, in which Petrarch assumes a submissive attitude
to a stern but loving Laura.

1.
my desire:
His unruly will to be heard, to let his voice ring out.

two burning spurs:
Laura’s eyes.

2.
hard bit:
Her disdain of him.

3.
trangresses:
Oversteps the bounds of propriety in its exuberance.

4.
gives a bit of joy:
Such as he derived from the preceding sonnet.

5.
the one:
Laura, who knows his deepest thoughts and motives.

7.
whose actions he corrects:
True Love is self-correcting. Cf. Eccles. 18:13, “Qui misericordiam habet, docet,
et erudit quasi pastor gregem suum.”

8.
that flashes:
The loving anger of Laura in turn pricks him like a lightning flash.

10.
angry Jove:
Challenged by his boldness.

11.
hold back great desire:
Temper and shape it, as in metallurgy or the firing of glass.

13.
transparent as is glass:
An image of pure spirit.

14.
bring back peace:
Revealing the purity of his motives.

The many sources that flow into and feed his language—the rivers and trees of many
cultures—cannot dilute the intensity of his love.

1–4.
Not Tessin, Tiber … :
Twenty-three river names are listed, some with atypical spellings: six in Italy,
six in Asia Minor and Africa, and eleven in various parts of Europe.

3–4.
sea-breaker/ Rhône:
The mouth of the powerful Rhône flows out not far from Avignon and Vaucluse. Figuratively,
its waters penetrate the mother sea.

5.
ivy, fir, pine … :
All with religious as well as literary significance. Cf. poem 10 and note. The ivy,
like the laurel, is an evergreen plant, and juniper (
retem
in the Old Testament) bears fruit that purifies.

7.
fair stream:
The Sorgue.

8.
slim tree:
The laurel.

10.
where I in armor:
Guarding against error.

11.
leaps and bounds:
Exuberantly.

13.
he who planted it:
Legend has it that Petrarch himself planted a laurel on the banks of the Sorgue.

This sixth of seven ballatas in the
Canzoniere
(not until poem 324 will there be another) precedes a cycle of fifty-six sonnets,
the longest in the collection. Petrarch’s broad hint of laughter in
aria
(1. 3) and in the “leaps” of the preceding sonnet carries over effectively into the
ballata form, a song meant to be danced to.

1.
From time to time:
Times when the divine Laura has smiled upon him, brightening the face of his verse.

3.
the tone:
The music he hears in her visible beauty.

4.
appears less dark:
Less inscrutable.

5–8.
Then why … :
If her attitude is softening, why does he continue to express himself in the old
way with the language of pain and desperation?

9–12.
If I should turn … :
His loving glance now seems to speak well for him, while before it availed him nothing.

13.
war is still not over:
She has given him fresh fuel for his fire.

The preceding ballata changed the rules of the game, putting Love in the service of
his desire. This debate between the soul and the rational faculty also turns familiar
themes around so craftily that it is difficult to discern whose voice is speaking.

2.
war that’s everlasting:
Eternal torment.

4.
our suffering:
The soul speaks with the authority of inner vision.

7.
Not she, but he:
Love has control of Lauras eyes and is, therefore, responsible for their effects.

8.
sees and is silent:
If her pity is not palpable.

10.
and happy:
Reflecting verse of his that appeared to be full of cheerful optimism (
lieta),
such as poem 148.

13.
stagnates there:
The painful thoughts he suppressed while he made the face of his verse “dry and happy.”

14.
hopes so grand:
That she would deign to interest herself in his suffering.

In a reversal of the old pattern of fleeing from Avignon to the green shore of Vaucluse,
new hope draws him back to her and a different style of love.

3.
dark and turbid trouble:
His inner spiritual conflict. Cf. poem 150.

5–8.
divine light …:
The sky clears suddenly in a quatrain that flows with acerbic sweetness.

6.
that high ray:
Like the morning star before dawn.

7.
black and white:
Her compassionate eyes. Cf. 29.23 and 72.50.

8.
dips in gold:
Cf. Ovid,
Metamorphoses
I, 468. Love has spoken for him, changing vitriol to honey.

9.
He is not blind:
In allegorical paintings Love was often portrayed blindfolded, aiming his arrows
randomly.

I see him:
His vision of Love, here graphically presented, has changed from that of the mature
Lord to Cupid, suggesting merry game-playing.

11.
but alive:
Not a figment of the imagination but a force independent of artifice.

13.
word by word:
Reducing the message to its simplest elements, as truth is revealed.

He struggles with Laura as if she were an angelic beast whose pleasure is to toy with
him.

1.
kind, wild beast:
The gentle Laura, even as her heart is fierce.

4.
spins me around:
As if on the wheel of fortune, or on the rack of torture.

my state uncertain:
His fortunes can go either way.

6.
between the two:
Between yes and no, life and death.

7.
that sweet poison:
The arrows of Cupid were dipped in the venom of sexual desire.

9–11.
My frail … :
He summons up a picture of the wheel spinning with him gripped to it, through summer,
winter, spring and fall. Line 11 in the Italian appears extraordinarily long and drawn
out, like suffering.

12.
hopes by fleeing:
To take his wounded self away from love’s war, to die in peace.

14.
This is a truncated version of the conceit of 140.14: “Who loves well dying comes
to a good end.” Cf. Seneca,
De dementia
II: “Quicquam non potest qui mori non potest.”

Still courting his angel with the heart of a beast, he sends his verse forth to her
sweetened with flattery.

1.
sighs of warmth, to her cold heart:
Full of spring thoughts, melting winter.

2.
her pity:
Her naturally receptive female nature.

6.
her fair gaze cannot reach:
This is a disputed line because it suggests Laura’s limited vision. Perhaps Petrarch’s
pilgrim has wandered too far into the
mondo tristo
for Laura’s influence to penetrate. Cf. Dante,
Inferno
II, 52.

7.
her harshness strikes us, or my star:
If his descent fails to redeem him or his art.

9.
perhaps not fully:
Modesty (the veil of Cupid) will prevent his describing in too great detail his suffering.

10.
dark and as unquiet:
Like the turbid sea in poem 151.

11.
peace and clarity:
On a higher level.

12.
Love comes with you:
His verse is suitably garbed for an audience with her, “nude” but veiled in the proper
places.

14.
my own sun’s signs:
She is receptive to these sweet, veiled thoughts.

This sonnet seems to clear the air of turbid darkness.

3.
which Nature mirrors:
Cf. Aristotle,
De generatione animalium
I, 3: “Spiritus qui in semine continentur, et natura quae in eo spiritu est, proportione
respondens elemento stellarum.” Dante expands on this philosophical point in
Convivio
IV, 21.

4.
its equal:
Laura’s unique beauty must have been modeled on a divine image.

6.
cannot feel safe:
Cannot resist surrendering to her beauty.

8.
raining grace:
Descending into his heart like a golden shower.

9.
The air that’s struck:
A neutral air that takes her sudden and illuminating impression.

11.
our own thought… surpasses:
The concept of chastity (honesty) here is beyond mortal understanding, or at least
beyond expression in language.

12.
no base desire:
Any less honest or virtuous response.

13–14.
Now when … :
The question begs comparison with Dante’s Beatrice. Petrarch combines in Laura’s
somma beltà
both her physical and spiritual beauty, as if he were reducing Dante’s canzone “Donna
ch’avete intelletto d’amore” to fourteen lines, maintaining all its elements. Dante
did his own thematic reducing in the
Vita nuova
in the sonnet “Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare,” eliminating any mention of “vile
desire.”

The next four sonnets have as their common theme the weeping of Laura on the first
day, Good Friday 1327.

2.
the one … the other:
Caesar, emperor, quick to wound, Jove, temporal deity, inclined to thunder in rage
against enemies.

5–8.
My lady wept … :
Cf. Dante,
Inferno
II, 133–38.

5.
my lord wanted me:
The sight of Laura weeping struck the fatal blow of Love. The identification of the
weeping lady with Mary Magdalene was common in Petrarch’s day.

6.
her sorrow:
Laura gave audible expression to her grief.

8.
marrow of my bones:
Transformed him into living stone.

12.
skillful keys:
So that his memory of her, as durable and pure as diamond, may be retrieved by grief
and desire at the urging of Love.

13–14.
draws forth/… sighs:
A mournful music.

14.
precious tears:
Lagrime rare,
similar to the sparingly chosen words of 144.7.

The sight of Laura weeping and the sound of her grief brought heaven and earth to
a standstill.

3.
pains and pleases:
Her sorrow and pity pain him; their justness pleases him.

4.
Shadow, smoke, and dreams:
The weather has altered from the sunrise of poem 154.

5.
lights in tears:
The sorrow of Laura was that of an angel grieving for mankind.

8.
mountains move:
A reference to Orpheus, whose music enchanted and transformed the Underworld. Cf.
Horace,
Odes I
,12.9–12: “Arte materna rapidos morantem fluminum lapsus celerisque ventos, blandum
et auritas fidibus canoris ducere quercus.”

13.
dared move:
They were immobilized. Cf. Dante,
Purgatorio
II, 115–17, where the musician Casella puts the words of the poet Dante to song.

This sonnet (added to Petrarch’s final manuscript in 1366) again demonstrates the
spell of nature’s art. Laura may be real, but her beautiful qualities are perceived
as a veil drawn over her essential self.

1.
so cruel:
The day of the crucifixion; secondarily, the day he was wounded by Love.

3.
no wit or style:
Cf. 154.11.

5.
Her attitude:
The words
l’atto
and
costumi
(qualities) of 156.1 both have a special function in these two poems,
l’atto
only “adorned” with pity,
costumi
a set of virtues translating into grief rather than action.

9.
Her head fine gold:
Her hair is purified gold fashioned into the finest threads, like that of an icon.

10.
eyebrows ebony:
Black as the polished heart-wood of this mysterious tree.

12.
pearls and red roses:
Her teeth and lips.

the gathered grief:
The holy words expressing a collective grief.

14.
her sighs a flame:
Of consuming intensity.

crystal:
Cf. 30.37, 51.10, and Dante,
Inferno
XXIII, 97–99.

The final sonnet of the four on the subject of Lauras weeping responds to the question
asked in 154.14 and 155.1. Base desire
was
once and only once conquered by highest beauty, bringing peace to heaven and earth
on the strength of compassion.