One of the greatest intellectuals of his time? Glorified stalker? Or merely a peddler of Medieval Emo? How is a modern reader to react to a poet like Petrarch? Perhaps I should start at the beginning. 

One day, on April 6, 1327 to be exact, Petrarch was visiting France minding his own business when an assault took him out of the blue:

It didn’t seem a time to be on guard
against Love’s blows, so I went confident
and fearless on my way. My troubles started
amid the universal sense of woe.

Love found me wholly undefended, with
the way from eyes to heart completely open,
eyes that are now the conduit of tears.

He got no glory by it; I was helpless.
And he let you escape with no attack
when you were well defended, fully armed.

Petrarch fell in love with a beautiful woman named Laura and his life was never the same again.

Of the 366 poems in the collection, most of them are about Laura and Love, with only the occassional foray into politics of the times.

Petrarch declares many in times in his poetry that Love, often describe with wings like Cupid, is his master. Many common metaphors that Petrarch employs is to speak of Laura’s icy heart or present her as being his sun, her light guiding him through life. Or more specifically that her beautiful eyes, which he particularly compliments in his poetry, are two lunar lights. He often associates her with the Laurel tree, alluding to the myth of Apollo chasing after Daphne who is transformed into a Laurel tree when she tries to escape his passion that she doesn’t return. He describes his own passions as being on fire, burning him alive. In one poem, he presents Love as being a mere thief waiting to assault him and steal his Reason when he least expects it. He claims there is never any relief from his tears, night or day he is always thinking of Laura. In the later poems, after Laura dies from illness, he describes her as a heavenly being who is the font of virtue, in a similar vein as Dante does for Beatrice in The Divine Comedy.

If a person wrote poems like this today to a woman he wasn’t married to and presumably had no interest in dating him, he would probably be locked up as an obsessive stalker. Much of the imagery, such as him telling us there is no relief from his constant tears, his heart inflamed with passion, we would dismiss as Emo whining. However, as one slowly makes their way through the many sonnets, ballatas, and other styles of poetry, they cannot help be see a master craftsman, one of the greatest poets that ever lived. While the repeating motifs and Petrarch’s reliance on using the same metaphors and imagery can sometimes make one poem feel like nothing more than a minor variant of another, there is still an undeniable beauty to each one of these poems. Nevertheless, as the reader wades through the 366 poems, despite a great deal of a repetition in content, Petrarch also provides enough variety to keep matters interesting.

Petrarch reminds us of the power of love, the way it can overcome you when you least expect it, and that the true nature of love isn’t sexual, but true love reaches deep into your soul and should set a person on the virtuous path. He describes how Love can overcome Reason. Petrarch, especially in his later poems, comes to realize his earlier emphasis on Laura’s body parts was a mistake, that he abandoned religious matters, the proper concern for his soul, for his passions. Petrarch in the end realizes true love is about the soul, it’s about virtue. This is the lesson Petrarch comes to learn from Laura’s refusal of his advances and rebuking his feelings, as he describes in his poems. Love is a powerful emotion, but it must never jeopardize our souls. However, love, when it transcends beyond lust, can teach us virtue. So unlike many of those shallow Emo bands croning about their mean girlfriends, Petrarch shows us what it means for a man to truly be afflicted by love.

Advertisement