by David Young
This poem was probably addressed to Cardinal Giacomo Colonna, encouraging him to lead the Crusade of 1334.
This canzone follows a Provençal form in which the rhymes and internal rhymes are the same in each stanza.
Laura’s eyes
The missing word laurel in the coda is supplied by L’auro, “gold.”
This sonnet was written during Laura’s illness.
the sphere of the sun
the sphere of the moon, Mercury, and Venus
Venus as the morning star
the North Star, associated with Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. Callisto and her son Arcas were transformed by Juno into constellations because of Juno’s jealousy of Jupiter’s love for Callisto.
This sonnet was written to Orso dell’ Anguillara, a friend in Rome.
recipient unknown, Avignon area
This sonnet was written to a patron in Rome.
sticky substance used by hunters to capture birds
probably Livy
July and January
god of the winds
the sea and the air
Vulcan
Mt. Etna
Latona, goddess of earth
Apollo
Caesar wept for Pompey, his son-in-law; David wept for Absalom and Saul, cursing Mt. Gilboa and making it sterile.
her mirror
changed to a flower
Daphne metamorphosed to laurel
Atlas, changed to a mountain
a madrigal
In May 1347 the tribune Cola di Rienzo tried to restore the Roman republic and temporarily gained control of the government; Petrarch was enthusiastic about the attempt, but Cola’s oppressive government turned supporters against him and he was gone within a year. Chronologically, then, this poem belongs much further on in the sequence, being ten years later than, for example, Number 50. The animals in the sixth stanza represent various Roman families; the column stands for the Colonna family.
another madrigal
a ballata
pillow, book, cup, and poem (“me”)
the poem hopes for immortality. Its recipient was probably Agapito Colonna, disappointed in love.
another ballata
Satan
i.e., Good Friday, 1338
a ballata
especially the Vaucluse, to which Petrarch moved in 1340
the Sorgue and the Durance
the northwest coast of Italy
laurel
This sonnet was written on a visit to Rome, probably in 1341.
Each stanza concludes with a line from another poem: one thought to be by Arnaut Daniel; one by Cavalcanti (“Donna me prego”); one by Dante; one by Cino da Pistoia; and the last from Petrarch’s own poem Number 23.
Laura’s eyes, the subject of Numbers 71, 72, and 73, known as “the canzoni of the eyes”
his inspiration or his head
Petrarch imagines time stopping while he gazes at Laura.
Greek sculptor
Simone Martini, who apparently sketched Laura’s portrait
1341
Satan
Christ
This sonnet was probably written to Petrarch’s brother Gherardo on the death of his wife.
This sonnet was written on the death of the poet Cino da Pistoia, 1270–1336.
This sonnet was written to Orso dell’ Anguillara, who was apparently unable to attend a tournament because of illness.
recipients unknown
This sonnet describes north and south windows at Laura’s house, part of a list of things associated with her.
Death
In May 1333, Stefano Colonna defended himself against two members of the Orsini family by killing them.
the Orsini clan
This sonnet was written to Pandolfo Malatesta, ruler of Rimini.
Roman generals
poetry and literature
canzone frotolla: a poem of intentional obscurities, maxims and proverbs, and constantly shifting subject matter
a madrigal; compare Numbers 52 and 54
This sonnet is addressed to the soil where Laura walked.
Sennuccio del Bene, Florentine poet and Petrarch’s good friend
presumably the Vaucluse
see Number 108
pun on Laura
probably the corrupt papal court at Avignon; see the next poem
Laura
Avignon
Vaucluse; see Numbers 116 and 117
Laura
probably Cardinal Giovanni Colonna, whose foot was gouty
Vaucluse, to which Petrarch moved in 1337
Vaucluse
the Papacy at Avignon
the first lady: Glory; the second lady: Virtue; Petrarch was crowned Poet Laureate in Rome on Easter Sunday, 1341.
Antonio de Ferrara, hearing a rumor of Petrarch’s death, had written a canzone mourning him.
Death’s
a madrigal
the human body
addressing this song
This is Petrarch’s most important political poem, addressed to the warring factions of Italy. It was probably written during the siege of Parma, 1344, composed at Selvapiana, on the Po. German mercenaries were being widely employed by the warring city-states, and they were notorious for surrendering too readily (“Bavarian deceit / that throws its hands aloft”).
a Roman consul, the victor in a battle with the Teutonic tribes in 102 B.C.
her daughter was Helen of Troy.
classical Greek painters and sculptors
traditionally remote regions
one of the puns on Laura’s name
The natural wonders are drawn from Pliny: the phoenix in Arabia; the magnet in the Indian Ocean; the catablepa, a creature whose glance could kill; the fountain in Africa said to be hot by night and cold by day; the fountain at the shrine of Zeus in Dordona that could ignite and quench torches; and the pair of fountains in the Canary Islands. The final fountain, “this spring,” is the Vaucluse, where Petrarch lived. The sun is in Taurus around mid-April.
whore of Babylon, here personifying the papal court at Avignon; ate acorns, etc.: refers to the poverty of the early Christian Church
the papal court at Avignon
the pagan nature of the court will become clear and remove to the world of idolatry associated with Muslims.
This sonnet is addressed to the papal court at Avignon; Constantine was thought to have first given sovereignty to the Popes. He is in Hell, where Petrarch assigns them, too.
This sonnet is addressed to friends left behind in Italy.
possibly Venice
west, toward Provence
the Promised Land
slavery
another love poet, unidentified, possibly Sennuccio del Bene, to whom the next poem is addressed
fifteen years; one lustrum is five years.
farthest north
east of Persia
Gibraltar
Italy
the Sorgue, in Vaucluse; the poem commemorates planting a laurel tree on its banks.
a ballata
the love god
the imagination
laurel
perhaps of Heaven and earth
presumably Dante does not qualify because he wrote in the vernacular
Catullus
Virgil
Juvenal
sacred to Athena/Minerva
sacred to Apollo, source of poetic and prophetic inspiration, i.e., “that selfsame cave”
myth of Er, who governs a heavenly sphere and whose music constitutes its harmony; she and the three Fates rule the spindle of necessity, to which the heavenly spheres are attached.
i.e., his eyes
the love god
the Ardennes, probably c. 1333
the planet Venus
perhaps to the realm of virtue
This sonnet is a reply to one by Geri Gianfigliazzi, a Florentine poet, using the same rhyme words.
This sonnet was writte
n while Petrarch was sailing east on the Po.
Laura’s hair
Laura
a traditional feature of river gods
Laura’s hair, braided with pearls
the laurel tree
Laura’s hair
Augustus
Agamemnon
Scipio Africanus, Roman conqueror of Carthage, whom Ennius celebrated in a long poem
Homer
Virgil
Laura’s braids
the Sorgue and the Durance
loyalty and chastity
God? or Laura’s husband?
L’aura, the pun on her name; the same pun opens Numbers 196, 197, and 198.
the laurel
Atlas, whom Perseus turned into a mountain by holding up the severed head of Medusa
l’aura, so that the first two lines of the poem pun twice on her name, l’aura and l’auro
Laura’s braids
the glove mentioned in Number 199, which Petrarch apparently wanted as a keepsake and Laura insisted on taking back
This poem is based on a Provençal form that uses rhyming stanzas and a riddling manner; what he was presumably reported to have said was that he loved someone other than Laura and was using his love for her as a pretext.
Cupid’s way of creating love and hate
Jacob served seven years to marry Rachel and then another seven years when the girls’ father, Laban, tried to substitute Leah; Elijah’s fiery chariot carried him off to Heaven.
thought to be able to survive and thrive in fire
a race near the Ganges, as reported by Pliny
pun on Rodano, the Italian name for the Rhône, and rodendo, gnawing
i.e., Avignon
Matthew 26:41
Vaucluse
the Hebrus; see Number 148
omens
the Three Fates, who measure, wind, and cut the thread of life
asps were thought to cover one ear with their tail and put the other ear to the ground to avoid hearing spells against them.
l’aura a pun on Laura
seven-year stages of life
joining soul and body
Aurora, goddess of dawn
Tithonus, with whom Petrarch, prematurely gray, identifies himself
Petrarch seems to have witnessed a procession featuring Laura and twelve ladies, first in a boat, then in a chariot. He compares them to Jason and the Argonauts and then to Paris taking Helen to Troy.
Achilles’ charioteer
pilot of the Argo
alludes to Psalm 102
the Vaucluse
compare the opening of Number 230
his own tears have marooned him like Noah.
suggests a gesture of friendliness by Laura
sickness
Death
Alexander murdered his friend in a drunken rage; Philip of Macedon was his father. Pyrgoteles, Lysippus, and Apelles were exclusively authorized to depict him in marble, bronze, and paint, respectively; Tydeus, one of the seven against Thebes, gnawed on the head of his enemy as he was dying; Sulla and Valentinianus were said to have died in fits of rage; Ajax committed suicide from anger when not awarded the armor of Achilles.
Laura had an infected eye and Petrarch caught the infection. We don’t know whether this account is literal or metaphorical.
perhaps reflecting a theory of Augustine’s on death, based on the separation of the earth and waters by God at creation
Endymion
This sonnet probably commemorates the visit of Charles of Luxembourg to Avignon in 1346.
In this sestina, the pun l’aura (breeze)/Laura occurs seven times, as one of the key repeated words.
Laura’s illness? Some personal unhappiness?
by tradition, Caumont, said to be Laura’s birthplace; compare Number 242
This sonnet is a reply to one from Giovanni Dondi dell’Orologio; Petrarch replicates his correspondent’s rhyme scheme.
The first line of the original—“L’aura che ’l verde lauro et l’aureo crine”—contains three puns—breeze, laurel, and golden—on Laura’s name.
The cities are supposedly the birthplaces of Demosthenes, Cicero, Virgil, and Homer
Latin and Greek
in his dream, which proves prophetic
the dream he has just had
Avignon?
perhaps Laura clasped his hand.
Helen
Lucrece, who took her own life after being raped by Tarquin
daughter of Priam, beloved of Achilles
seduced by Jason
wife of Oedipus’s son Polyneices
more recent than the other beauties mentioned
Laura is the speaker here, apparently in conversation with her mother.
the laurel, i.e., Laura. At this point the most authoritative manuscript, Vatican 3195, has seven blank pages, apparently acknowledging Laura’s death.
This sonnet was written to Cardinal Giovanni Colonna (column), Petrarch’s friend and patron.
in love with Laura
[years]: since he met Colonna; this dates the poem to 1345, three years before Laura’s death.
News of Laura’s death reached Petrarch in Parma on May 19, 1348.
Cardinal Colonna died July 3, 1348.
Laura’s death date, which places this poem in 1351
l’aura estiva
This sonnet praises the Vaucluse.
the Vaucluse
l’aura soave
Sennuccio del Bene, Florentine poet, d. 1349
where the souls of the love poets dwell
The goddess Aurora, dawn, was married to the ancient Tithonus; more puns on Laura’s name are built into the rhyme scheme of the octave.
see Number 287
Laura’s body, to be restored at the Last Judgment
the body
associated with Avernus, entrance to the underworld
formed by the mythological underworld river Styx
the west wind
the swallow
the nightingale
Venus
This echoes a famous sonnet by Cavalcanti.
This sonnet is an allegory of Laura’s death, physical and spiritual, as two trees, one dead and one—her soul, still rooted in his heart—surviving.
Muses of music and poetry, respectively
Laura’s birthplace; Petrarch imagines being buried there and having her walk across his grave.
see Number 320
hair and complexion
This sonnet refers to one written twenty-five years earlier by Giacomo Colonna; Petrarch replicates the rhyme scheme and mourns the writer, who had died that same year.
This poem offers six allegorical renderings of the death of Laura, using familiar symbols of her to reiterate the mystery of her loss.
a ballata
This poem is an allegory of Laura’s life and death, as recounted to the poet by Fortune, who foresees Laura’s early death during her lifetime.
her chastity
the laurel
premonition of her death
adolescence
Death
This is a double sestina; when the poet “doubles up his grief,” he also commits himself to a difficult duplication of the form.
Laura’s eyes
Death
The poet’s human limits allowed him to see Laura’s physical beauty but not her soul.
Petrarch will retract this accusation in the next sonnet.
the nightingale
the breeze-Laura-aura pun once more
Christ’s harrowing of Hell
Reason
the side of desire and irrationality; see Numbers 88 and 214
Agamemnon
Scipio Africanus
her rape, which she responded to with exposure of the perpetrator, Tarquin, and her own suicide, brought about Rome’s change from a tyranny to a republic.
oaks and elms: trees that lose their leaves, signifying the poet’s mortality, which he ac
cepts painfully
1358
Index of First Lines
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Admiring the clear sun of her great eyes
Ah, liberty, sweet freedom, how you’ve shown
Ah, Love, when hope for recompense
Ah, my dear lord, each thought calls me to see
Ah, reach your hand out to my weary mind
A lady much more splendid than the sun—
Alas, I burn, and no one will believe me;
Alas, I don’t know where to put the hope
Alas, I know that she who pardons no man
Alas, I was not careful at the first
Alas! That lovely face, that gentle gaze.
A little angel, new, on nimble wings
All day I weep; and then at night when most
All you who hear in scattered rhymes the sound
Alone and pensive, crossing empty fields
Although another’s fault removes from me
Although I’ve tried to hinder you from lying
And is this it, the nest in which my phoenix
Anger defeated victorious Alexander
Apollo loved a tree in human form;
A royal nature, intellect angelic
As her white foot moves forward through cool grass
As long as my two temples are not white
A soul had been created in a place
As soon as bowstring’s loosed and arrow flies
At every step I make I turn around
A thousand times, oh, my sweet warrior
A thousand years could Polyclitus study
A toughness that was sweet, and calm rejections
At that time when the sky goes slanting quickly
A white doe on green grass appeared to me;
A wild and hardened heart, a cruel will
Beautiful soul, freed from the knot that was
Beautiful Virgin, dressed in glorious sunlight
Because our life is brief
Because she bore Love’s ensign in her face
Because the bright, angelic sight of her
Below the foothills where she first put on
Between two lovers once I saw a lady
Bitter tears come raining down my face
Blessed in sleep and languishing, contented
Both Love and I are full of sheer amazement
Bright sparks came from that pair of lovely lights
But now that her sweet smile, soft and humble
By the Tyrrhenian Sea, on its left bank
