2. • Petrarch
• classical influence
• civic duty
• love versus reward
• pastoral elements
Humanism and Poetry
3. Petrarch (1304–1374)
• Arezzo, Italy
• Colonna family
• Rime Sparse
• Laura
• sonnet form: octet problem,
sestet resolution
• a-b-b-a rhyme form
4. “Although I hope, without any doubt, to spill / a river of
your blood—indeed, I am certain / I can, without shedding a
drop of my own— / what if you were to offer me peace? / What
if, all weapons laid aside, you took / the path opened to a love
match in bed?” (p. 164).
Interior/Exterior Life
7. Veronica Franco (1546–1591)
• Writer and courtesan
• Specialized in terza rima
• Reputation tarnished when accused of witchcraft
8. “I find, in light of how I lost my way,
I might have met a much more bitter fate”
(Garcilaso, Sonnet 1)
“Hard destiny makes me act like one who’s been
stung by a scorpion but still hopes to heal”
(Labé, Sonnet 1)
Emotion
10. “Why with the time do I not glance aside
To new-found methods and to compounds strange?”
(Shakespeare, Sonnet 76)
“O no! it is an ever-fixèd mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark”
(Shakespeare, Sonnet 116)
References
11. How do the lover and beloved represent, respectively, interior
versus exterior life in humanist poems?
Discussion Questions 1
12. Humanist poets often employ classical elements and themes
in their works. Which do you see presented in the cluster
selection?
Discussion Questions 2
13. This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for
The Norton Anthology
of World Literature
For more learning resources, please visit the Digital Landing
Page for The Norton Anthology of World Literature at
https://digital.wwnorton.com/worldlit4pre1650
Editor's Notes
Petrarch is considered the father of humanism, and references to classical societies, mores, and civic duty abound in several of his poems. In Sonnet 62, Petrarch’s love for Laura mirrors Apollo’s love for Daphne—in the poet’s and Greek god’s lives, the greater reward is the laurel (symbol of lyric poetry) rather than the fruition of romantic love that has been pursued by the poet and denied by his beloved. Sonnet 126 contains pastoral elements, in which nature and the Lady’s body intertwine in a series of correspondences (i.e., sweet waters/lovely body, branch/column, grass and flowers/ garments, air/breath).
Francis Petrarch was born in Arezzo on July 20, 1304, and initially trained as a law student. He received patronage from the powerful Colonna family, refusing offices of bishop and papal secretary and preferring instead to invest his time in humanistic scholarship and the arts. His most famous work, the Rime Sparse (Scattered Rhymes) is a collection of 366 songs and sonnets based on the calendar year; the work is written in Italian and is highly introspective, taking the poet himself as the object of study as he deals with how his thoughts and identity are transformed by an idealized woman named Laura. Within Petrarchan sonnet form, the sestet and octet often contrast formally or semantically, and rhymes in a-b-b-a form are used to reinforce or contradict meanings—a problem is generally presented in the octet and resolved in the sestet. The translation for Petrarch’s “Sonnet 333” retains the original octet/sestet and a-b-b-a rhyme structure. The poem’s octet represents the poet’s attempt to woo his lover with poetry and to express his grief for unrequited love. The sestet contrasts, focusing on the beloved’s grace and his hope that she will be both immortalized in his poetry and honor him at his death. The rhyme reinforces contrasts between organic and lifeless or rough material (wild and harsh images “stone/overgrown” contrast tame and rounded “dear/sphere,” “blown/alone” represent distance and oppose the close and stable “steer/here”).
The image is an early sixteenth-century Venetian portrait of Petrach and Laura de Noves, the real-life Laura. She holds a laurel branch like that which crowns the poet. The double portrait, now in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, is based on a fifteenth-century manuscript that depicts the two subjects separately. Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, UK/Bridgeman Images
Some poets, particularly Petrarch and Shakespeare, appear to blend both lifestyles in order to realize their aesthetic. Petrarch’s sonnet sequence often describes Laura’s physical appearance in extravagant depth, but only as a means for the poet to realize his own thoughts interiorly. In Sonnet 1, for example, Petrarch laments a “youthful error” for which he now seeks “repentance,” having realized that physical pleasure is only a “brief dream” compared with self-introspection (p. 155). In Labe’s Sonnet 18, the writer speaks about the pleasure in kissing, realizing that she has no identity or happiness without “some place outside myself” (p. 162). Franco’s poem offers a blend of active and interiority, asking “what if” questions while fantasizing graphic revenge.
Born to a noble family in Toledo, Spain, Garcilaso was a courtier and soldier who traveled to Italy with the armies of Emperor Charles V, where he was deeply influenced by Italian (Petrarchan) poetry.
The image is a Drawing of Garcilaso, Madrid (1791). Tarker/Bridgeman Images
Labé was born to a rich rope maker in Lyons, France. She was educated in Italian and music and was part of a lively community of humanist poets during the French Renaissance. Louise Labé’s poetry makes numerous references to Greek gods and to pastoral settings. In Sonnet 1, Ulysses (Odysseus) parallels her beloved’s beauty and honor, while Sonnet 10 creates a pastoral setting with a lute playing music, a verdant landscape, and a man with blonde curls crowned by a laurel (representing Apollo).
The image is an Engraving of Labé, by Pierre Woeirlot (1555). Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France/Bridgeman Images
Franco was a writer and courtesan who specialized in terza rima—the same form used by Dante. She used Cicero as a model and was engaged in Venice’s literary life and salons. She was accused of witchcraft and tried by the Inquisition, which ultimately tarnished her reputation.
The humanist love lyric, inspired by Petrarch’s poetry, often focuses on the beloved as a cause of deep grief, sorrow, and self-destruction for the poet; the lover is frequently accused of taking sadistic liberties with the poet’s emotions. Garcilaso de la Vega’s Sonnet 1 uses imagery of “losing one’s path” and wishing for death because he gave love to “one who could destroy and ruin me” (p. 159). In Sonnet 10, he accuses the beloved of conspiring “to see my death” and giving him joy for the express purpose “to see me die of memories filled with grief” (pp. 159–60). In Louise Labé’s Sonnet 1, the beloved is accused of offering love that is compared to a scorpion sting or poison, and she begs the beloved to “kill the pain” (p. 161). Franco’s “Capitolo 13: Challenge to a Lover” uses battle imagery (battlefield, arms, challenge, duel) to evoke the sense of a war fought between two lovers, that she may free herself of “merciless mistreatment” (p. 162).
Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 76” uses scientific allusions ("new-found methods," "compounds strange"), textile imagery ("noted weed"), and financial contexts (“Spending again what is already spent") to establish the “problem” (he thinks of her constantly with no reward), while the terminal couplet neatly resolves the struggle: love endures, and renews itself as does the sun rise and set (p. 165). Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 uses nautical imagery: the first three quatrains refer to deliberation, a fixed star that acts as a guide for ships at sail, and Father Time (sickle) with compass for direction.
In Sonnet 1, for example, Petrarch laments a “youthful error” for which he now seeks “repentance,” having realized that physical pleasure is only a “brief dream” compared with self-introspection (p. 155). In Sonnet 3, Christian imagery contrasts with a lover’s internal grief (Maker/Lady, defend/bound, Love’s blows/universal woe, heart/tears, Christian crucifixion/ Cupid’s arrows of love and hate). In Labé’s Sonnet 18, the writer speaks about the pleasure in kissing, realizing that she has no identity or happiness without “some place outside myself” (p. 162). In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130, the poet takes painstaking efforts to point out his mistress’ flaws: her eyes are not bright, her lips pale, her breast the color of manure, her hair coarse, and her breath stinking. His mistress has a rough voice and heavy gait, yet in the terminal couplet Shakespeare resolves that nobody compares to her.
Sonnet 189 uses Odysseus’s marine adventures as a metaphor for the trauma and turmoil Petrarch experiences in unrequited love (i.e., ship/poet’s soul, harsh sea/troubled relationship, Scylla and Charybdis/forgetfulness and sin, sweet stars/Laura’s eyes). Louise Labé’s poetry makes numerous references to Greek gods and to pastoral settings. In Sonnet 1, Ulysses (Odysseus) parallels her beloved’s beauty and honor, while Sonnet 10 creates a pastoral setting with a lute playing music, a verdant landscape, and a man with blonde curls crowned by a laurel (representing Apollo).