Category: Post 2

Canzoniere # 271: Complex

Layka Coby 10/22/21

The genre 0f poem 271 is Love. The poet conveys his emotions, ideas, and fears through this stanza by his use of language. The language used is usually associated with unhappiness, great sorrow due to love. He shows imagery of the emotions he expresses through figurative language, using words and phrases to describe an actual event he experienced. “I’d be caught and burned and all the more for being more for being less green wood”, is a simile the author used to compare how love made them feel as they compare themselves to a tree. 

This was part of Petrarca 366 poem to and about Laura. The theme of the poem is focused around his inner conflict within himself while he is so madly in love with Laura. In this stanza he talks about the immense sorrow and pain he feels trying to get rid of and walk away from how deeply he feels for Laura. In the first stanza Petrarca states, “ The burning knot which hour after hour bound me for twenty-one entire years Death has untied; I never felt such grief, nor do I think that man can die of sorrow.” From this stanza It could be understood that the love he has experienced for this beautiful woman Laura is great and shows this by using death as an undertone to reflect the seriousness of his feelings. The next stanza states, “ Love, not yet willing to let go of me, had set another snare within the grass and with new tinder lit another fire making it very hard for me to flee”. What can be inferred by the language and emotions being reflected from this stanza is that Petrarca feels somewhat trapped in this loop whole of their feelings for Laura, every time he tries to walk away from the situation” another lit fire makes it very hard for me to flee”. He is ready to move on and get rid of the pain that comes with this love but he’s stuck by different obstacles. The last two stanzas state, “ And if it had not been for long experience of my first labors, I’d be caught and burned and all the more for being less green wood. Death has delivered me another time- broken the knot, stamped out the scattered fire- against whom neither force nor wit avails.”  He shows his willingness to go through whatever for this love he has for Laura, he will even come to  face death.  A word I would use to represent the poem would be  complex because both his feelings and language within the poem give off the impression of a complex love and situation he experiences.  

Canzoniere 159: Goddess

In poem 159, there were very vivid descriptions of Laura. In the first stanza, Pertrarca questioned where in heaven nature took the model to obtain her lovely face and show her power down here with the rest of us. This description made the person who was being talked about seem respectable and of very high power. The way Pertracra made these words come together created a perfect visualization for me about what this woman looks like. After reading this stanza, I knew the theme was love and I wanted to analyze it because of that. I love the way love is depicted in this poem, particularly the preface. The next stanza starts to include words that have overall positive definitions. For instance, the word nymph. This word was used in Greek mythology to categorize any of a large class of inferior female divinities. Nymphs were associated with fertile, growing things, including water or trees. The usage of this word provided a wholesome and superior model of the woman. Also, the word virtues was used. The second stanza states “How did a heart collect so many virtues the sum of which is guilty of my death.” I love this line of the poem because it is a play on words. A virtue is a morally good trait or quality, and it is used in the poem as something that caused death which is not something virtues are morally capable of. However, he makes it seem that her qualities were so good, that they are capable of death. 

The next stanzas really depict the depth of Laura’s beauty and the way Petrarcra felt about her. He states that ‘if a man has not yet looked upon her eyes and seen how tenderly she makes them move.’ Before he proceeds to the next stanza, this stanza proves how strongly he feels towards Laura’s eyes, which is extremely significant. Before that, he also states that ‘who seeks for divine beauty seeks in vain.’ The usage of the word vain in this instance shows that even though someone might have a high opinion on her appearance, it should not affect their perspective towards her. To summarize, the last stanza states that this man does not know how love can heal as well as kill, if he did not know the sweetness of Laura’s speech, sighs, and smile. This final stanza really drew me to this poem because of how sweet but deep the message is. Petrarca describes Laura as a perfect goddess, but he also adds these undertones of death and guilt that added a different level of emotion to his feelings about her. As I read the poem, the love was so deep it kind of reminded me of Dante and Beatrice a little bit. I really enjoyed reading about the love that was depicted in The Divine Comedy and it is interesting to see the similarities and differences in that theme with Pertrarca.