Petrarch (97 page)

4.
the blind world:
Cf. 119.46–53. Although the world gives lip service to virtue, its real motive is
to seek pleasure.

5.
come quickly now:
To gaze on her in her passing.

7.
kingdom of the gods:
Amongst the angels, the souls of the greatest mortals.

10.
all regal-mannered ways:
Of one first among women.

11.
joined in one body:
Modeled by the divine fabricator.

12.
verse is dumb:
Responding to 247.2–3, “my style is wrong / in making her beyond all others gracious.”

13.
talent overcome:
Of total absence of his sun.

14.
weep forever:
For her disappearance from this world.

Certain aspects of his beloved Laura at his last sight of her, when remembered together,
assail him with dark thoughts. Chiari dates this sonnet 1347–48, Black Death years
in Europe.

2.
the day I left:
Cf. 242.2: “there yesterday we left her.”

sad and pensive:
“Sighing gently” in 246.1.

6.
like a rose:
Cf. poems 245 and 246.

7.
neither gay nor sad:
In a kind of limbo of emotion. Cf. the “new and delicate aspects” of poem 246.

8.
like one who fears:
Has a presentiment of an unhappy future. Zingarelli cites Dante,
Inferno
IV, 84.

9.
all her elegance:
Corresponding to “humble presence” in line 5.

10.
her pearls:
Her charming youthful qualities and worldly adornments.

11.
her laughing:
Cf. 245.10.

13.
and now sad omens:
Signs that the
soverchio lume
of 248.13 has indeed gone out.

blackest thoughts:
Of total absence of light.

The cause of his anxiety is revealed in a dream in which Laura speaks to him, making
undeniable what he only sensed before.

3.
now:
Three states of mind are evoked: dreaming then, remembering now, and a middle ground
in which that dream is reinterpreted.

scares and saddens me:
Cf. the premonitions of poem 249.

4.
I have no defense:
Because fear has been added to grief, usurping the place of joy.

6.
mixed with serious pain:
Grave dolor,
an expression of hers he has not mentioned before.

10.
left… your eyes in tears:
Reflecting her pity and pain.

12.
I could not tell you then:
Cf. 119.99–100: “And now I’ve told you / as much as you can understand in brief.’”

nor did I want to:
Because he wasn’t ready to know.

13.
tried and true:
Proven by his own experience. He is ready to know now what she did not tell him then.

14.
Don’t ever hope:
The absence of the word “again” is puzzling, suggesting that Laura always was a figment
of his imagination. However, in 253.2, it is provided. Cf. also 328.14.

Disbelief is his reaction to the dream of the last sonnet. Can his mind have deceived
him? And why has no one else noted her passing?

1.
Oh miserable… vision:
The dream of poem 250.

2.
holy light is out:
Her bountiful grace spent.

3.
before her time:
At a young age, before fulfilling her promise.

6.
than hearing it from her:
He speaks ironically of talking to himself, of his prophecies not having been taken
seriously. Dante made a similar comment in
Purgatorio
IX, 25–27: ’”Could this be the only place / the eagle strikes? Perhaps he does not
deign / to snatch his prey from anywhere but here.”

7.
not consent:
As they conspired in her birth, let them not in her dissolution. Cf. 159.1–4.

8.
my sad opinion:
A truth not yet demonstrated, only dreamed of by the poet.

11.
gives me life:
Sustains him, as in poem 207.

honor to the world:
Making the world worthy of and by her presence.

13.
lovely home:
Her beautiful body.

The threat of Laura’s loss, as yet unconfirmed, acts as an incentive for self-criticism.

3.
release my burden:
He vents the pain spilling over into his dreams.

with all his tools:
Literally “files,” the tormenting thoughts that assail him.

6.
their primal light:
What he saw at the “first assault.”

7.
ah, what am I to think:
Against what standard will he measure himself?

8.
endless weeping:
Through eternity.

9.
taking what belongs to it:
Laura was only lent to the world.

11.
whose sun it is:
If not illuminated by that fair, holy face.

12.
perpetual war:
With his presentiments and his hopes.

13.
what I used to be:
Cf. 1.4.

Whatever little genuine sweetness he has been granted has always been cut short by
Fortune.

2.
ever… again:
Fear of her disappearance from the world still lingers. Cf. 250.14.

5.
harsh fate:
Her face is a white rose gathered from thorns. Cf. 220.2 and 246.5.

7.
O closed betrayal…fraud:
Those locks of gold and Love’s deceptions, now seen in another light.

8.
brings me only pain:
The darkness and doubt plaguing him in recent sonnets.

11.
honest sweetness:
A pure, candid expression of love rather than a habitual betrayal and fraud.

12.
to scatter any good:
To disperse his amorous forces.

13.
horses or ships:
Offensive means, here the defenders of Laura’s virtue.

14.
by Fortune:
Ready to carry him away from her aginst his will.

Hope that she lives continues to pierce him.

1.
hear no news:
He seeks some sign that the frightening vision of poem 250 is false.

2.
my sweet enemy:
An epithet that has not appeared since poem 206.

3.
don’t know what to think:
Cf. 252.7.

4.
is pierced:
Mi puntella,
not quite killing him; that is, alternately delivering the wound and then resurrecting
him.

5.
Such beauty harmed another:
He refers to the myth of Callisto, “the most beautiful,” a nymph Jove ravished and
then turned into a bear to protect her from Juno’s wrath. Later killed by Diana, Callisto
was set among the constellations as the She-Bear. Cf. Ovid,
Metamorphoses
II, 381 ff.

9.
rather a sun:
He corrects himself. Cf. 255.5.

if this be so:
If Laura has been taken from earth.

12.
from my harm:
From his “sweet enemy.”

13.
My little fable has … been told:
Favola
is meant in the classical sense of “little drama.” Cf. 1.10.

14.
my time is filled:
Prematurely, like Laura’s.

The hour of dawn is more fitting to his love now than the passionate nights of ordinary
lovers.

3.
night redoubles:
He plays on the coupling of happy lovers.

woes and weeping:
The sequel to his dreams.

5.
those two suns:
The rising sun and the memory of Laura’s beauty fixed like the morning star in his
mind.

6.
will open:
As lovers open to each other.

two Orients:
Levanti,
two dawnings.

7–8.
so similar
… :
The one reflecting that of the other. In a political sense, he may envision a just
ruler emerging beside a reborn Church. Cf. poem 100 and notes.

9.
first boughs:
Laura during his first transformation.

10.
in my heart their roots were sunk:
Love of poetry was born in him simultaneously with his faith. Cf. 23.31–40, and 214.7–12.

12.
opposing hours:
Evening and morning.

Perhaps his sweet enemy is only hiding.

1.
take my vengeance:
Force her to listen.

2.
with glances and with words:
Her expression of pity and predictions of death. Cf. 250.5–8.

7.
like a lion:
Cf. 56.7–8 and 202.6. The roar of a lion is a warning to mankind to prepare for the
coming of Christ. Cf. Gen. 49:9, “ut leo, et quasi leaena: quis suscitabit eum?”

10.
such a knot:
The soul’s ties with the body.

12.
if some time:
In the far future, when he is dead. He speaks to posterity.

13.
speaking:
His soul in the form of his poetry being read and understood.

14.
break her sleep:
Corresponding to “take my vengeance,” that is, his warnings might make a difference.

He remembers how he experienced within himself a strange transport when Love—Laura—held
out her hand.

2.
were fixed:
On the beauty of his first love, her face.

4.
that honored hand:
Blocking the sight of her face (Leopardi), or held out as a sign of peace (Zingarelli).
For other references to the hand, see 72.55, the series 199–201, and 208.12.

5.
fish on hook:
Fixed on her beauty. Petrarch plays on the homonyms
a mo
(hook) and
amo
(I love).

6.
living as example:
Laura’s mortal self. The original “vivo esempio” is Christ.

7.
a young bird:
Cf. 207.33–39.

8.
turn to truth:
The meaning of his life to be found deep in those eyes.

10.
cleared its own way:
His mind made an intuitive leap toward understanding. Cf. Boethius,
Consolatione Philosophiae
III, poem 11.

12.
between, one glory and the other:
His soul, caught in time, between her face and her hand.

14.
supernatural sweetness:
What sublime potential lay in that moment.

The memory of her sparkling eyes and heavenly speech gives him double pleasure.

1.
living sparks:
The tinder in her eyes that aroused his love.

3.
wise heart, sighing:
Her eyes and her heart were in synchrony.

4.
lofty words:
Eloquenzia
—persuasive.

8.
under the change… harshness:
Referring to the first day, the change she wrought in him with her glance, and that
moments significance.

9.
nourished… grief and pain:
Caught in the snare like the bird of poem 257.

10.
power of habitualness:
His habit of expecting the worst based on her “accustomed harshness.”

11–12.
weak/at the mere taste:
Cf. poems 2 and 3; and Dante,
Vita nuova
XI and XII (the effect on Dante both of Beatrice’s greeting and her denial of it).

14.
often in between:
Between her spoken words and the thought communicated in her glance (
vive favilie
). Cf. 257.12.

Kind Fortune compels him to return to Avignon where the writing hand is put to the
service of Laura. Tassoni read this sonnet as a response to another poet who may have
questioned Petrarch’s motives.

2.
and the woods know this:
Witness his contemplations.

3.
deaf and devious minds:
Deaf to poetry, jealous and suspicious of truth. The word
loschi
(devious) appears just once in the
Canzoniere.

6.
sweet air of Tuscany:
His native land and Arcadia. Cf. poem 139.

7.
Sorgue:
The source of waters and inspiration in Vaucluse.

8.
help me weep and sing:
By imitation of its murmuring sound.

10.
pushes me back:
Against his natural bent.

to where I fill with anger:
To Avignon, the modern “Babylon.”

11.
lovely treasure:
Laura.

in the mud:
Her luster dimmed by everything worthless and unlovely, sunk in formlessness.
Fango
was a common disparagement of materialism.

12–13.
this hand…/… made friends:
Found a useful object for his anger.

13.
perhaps justly so:
He speaks of a rare time when he and Fortune were in agreement.

He returns to an old theme: Laura’s unique position in the world. This sonnet draws
comparisons with several of history’s most tragic female figures.

1.
In such a star:
That ruled the day he first saw her.

3.
nests of Love:
Her eyes.

7–8.
not even she
… :
More beautiful than Helen, whose seizure brought about the war between Greece and
Troy.