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CJ

Francesco Petrarcha

Updated: Jan 11, 2023

Sonnet 132

...If it’s not love, then what is it I feel? But if it’s love, by God, what is this thing? If good, why then the bitter mortal sting? If bad, then why is every torment sweet? If I burn willingly, why weep and grieve? And if against my will, what good lamenting? O living death, O pleasurable harm, how can you rule me if I not consent?

.. And if I do consent, it’s wrong to grieve. Caught in contrasting winds in a frail boat on the high seas I am without a helm, so light of wisdom, so laden of error, that I myself do not know what I want, and shiver in midsummer, burn in winter.


Francesco Petrarca (July 20, 1304 to July 18/19, 1374), Italian scholar, poet, and humanist, is credited with employing the phrase *Dark Ages. He is also noted for reshaping the Italian sonnet** into its current two-stanza form of an 8-line octave followed by a 6-line sestet. The Petrarchan or Italian sonnet typically opens with an argument or a question posed in the octave. The closing sestet then resolves or answers the octave's "proposition." Line nine, which opens the sestet and alerts readers to a shift in tone, is called the "Volta" (literally, the turn). The rhyme scheme for the Italian or Petrarchan sonnet is: ABBA ABBA | CDE CDE.


*The Dark Ages, used to describe the decline of literature following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, is generally considered to be from 476 AD to 1000 AD.


**Sonnet stems from the Italian word “sonetto,” which itself derives from “suono” (meaning a sound).To learn more about the four types of sonnets (Italian, English/Shakesperean, Spencerian, Miltonic click here.



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