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NoTES AND CoMMENTARY 1 SONNET In this introductory sonnet, Petrarch speaks, from outside the narrative he is about to begin, of a time completed, as ifhe stands on an overlook observing his own history unfolding below. The poem was probably written around 1347 when he decided to put his poems in order for publication (and before the death of Laura, according to Wilkins and others). r. these scattered verses: Poems written over a long period oftime, gathered and collected in this book. Rime sparse is the Italian version ofPetrarch's Latin title Rerum vulgarium.fragmenta. 2. sighs with which Ifed my heart: In the language ofmedieval love poetry, the heart receives a mortal wound and is kept alive with the help oflamentations. 3· errantyouthfol days: Errant (errore) signifies in Petrarch the behavior ofone deluded , bewildered, and impassioned. 4· in part: He has changed his outlook since first taking up his pen, recalling his youthful selfas a distinct part ofthe whole person he wishes to reconstruct. 5· for all the ways: All the various and often contradictory moods of the poems which follow. 7· anyone who knows love through its trials: More than knowing about love with the intellect, the compassionate person will know it from painful experience. C£ Dante's sonnet, "0 you who travel on the road ofLove," in Vita nuova VII. 9· become the talk: The object ofwonder and speculation. The line has sources in Horace and Ovid. n. shame: Petrarch makes triple reference to himself as object here, heaping blame on his errors. See Dante, Inferno II, 3-4, for a triple reference to selfas subject. See also Vita nuova III, where Dante introduces his maiden sonnet. 14. fleeting dream: Corresponding to his "errant youthful days." 2 SoNNET Always before impervious to love, he gazed with new eyes for a moment, with instant, fatal results. Love (Amor) is given a variety of guises in the Canzoniere. Often he has the character ofthe feudal lord in whose traces the lover labors. At times he is indistinguishable from Laura, especially in his capacity as winged archer or advisor. In poem 360, he appears to be satanic, but at times he is just a step away from a Christ figure when he is addressed fervently as "Lord." Always formidable, he is rarely described as a pretty Cupid. In this sonnet, Love resembles the Greek Eros, whose failure to overwhelm the poet in the past has made him vengeful. According to Hesiod, Eros was not only the god ofsensual love but a power which forms the world by inner union ofseparate elements. r. gracefol revenge: Love's skill with the bow was elegant, playful, and targeted with perfect accuracy at him. 2. a thousand wrongs: So many earlier rebuffs ofLove's power. 3· secretly: Love's assault came from a new and unexpected direction. 5· concentrated in my heart: His heart was fertile ground at the moment Love struck. 6. raised its defense: Meeting the gaze ofthe lady, his eyes formed a path for love to and from his heart. 7· struck the mortalblow: He received her glance. 8. had been blunted: From the hardness ofhis heart up until that moment. 12. lead me cleverly: Accortamente, literally, "with expertise." 13. high, hard mountain: His former citadel ofdetachment, reason. 3 SoNNET The exact time ofhis falling in love is established. r. It was the day the sun's ray had turned pale: The day of the Passion of Christ, 6 April 1327, according to poem 2n and the Triumph ofDeath, 133-134. There is general agreement that Petrarch was not referring to the variable date of Good Friday but to the date fixed by the death of Christ in absolute time, theferia sexta aprilis, which in 1327 fell on Monday. According to the Vulgate version of the Gospels (Matt. 27=45, Mark 15:33, and Luke 23:44), the sun darkened from the hours of six to nine as Christ was dying. 4· lovely eyes had bound me: The "assault" of poem 2.9 was coincidental with the lady's glance, which is now shown to have imprisoned him. 5· It seemed no time: On a day of mourning of the faithful, Good Friday. The mention of inappropriateness applies in several senses, one ofwhich is that war has intruded in the holy place where Petrarch first saw Laura, reportedly the church of St. Clare in Avignon. 8. universal woe: Griefof all Christians over the Crucifixion. 10. to reach my heart: The eyes...

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