Appunti di Letteratura inglese 2

Spring in Petrarch's Poetry

Zephiro: spring wind. He comes back bringing nice weather.

Garrir: it's what sallow do. He's talking about birds. Petrarch is using classical names which refer to a myth: according to Ovid in the "Metamorphosis", Progne and Philomena were sisters. In order to stop Philomena saying what happened to her (Terus violated her), he cut her tongue. The sister wanted revenge, so she killed the children.

So, from one side we have the presence of rebirth, but on the other side there's violence and pain.

Vermiglia: red. Spring is white and red. In Petrarch, the spring represented is the spring of the mind: it has the colour of youth (white) and love (red). It's not what we see when we go out in the fields, but what we see in our mind thinking about the spring. All the images presented are a kind of classical and literary representation of spring.

27Bazzani Laura Professor Petrina A.S. 2022-2023

Giove: he's

The father of Gods, but also the planet which influences lives. In fact, in that period these Gods were transformed into days (giovedì) or planets.

His daughter is Venus. Giove fought against his father Saturn because he tried to kill his children to eat them. Giove gave him a stone to eat, cut his genitals and throw them in the sea. This union between the genitals and the sea brought Venus.

As planets, Venus and Giove are opposite.

• The first two quatrains describe spring as a good season, of rebirth, love for animals. We know there’s also pain and violence.
• In the second part of the poem (from “ma”) we find the inner feelings of the poet, which substitutes the cosmological concepts presented in the first part.
• “Quella che”: Laura. Although he generally uses one sentence for one line, here we have the enjambement, the meaning going across the line. It’s probably used in this case to underline “sospiri”.
• All the

things described at the beginning are nothing for Petrarch, they’re “fere”.

Translation by Henry Howard

The soote season, that bud and bloom forth brings A

With green hath clad the hill and eke the vale; B

The nightingale with feathers new she sings; A

The turtle to her make hath told her tale. B

Summer is come, for every spray now springs; A

The hart hath hung his old head on the pale; B

The buck in brake his winter coat he flings; A

The fishes flete with new repaired scale; B

The adder all her slough away she slings; A

The swift swallow pursueth the flies small; B

The busy bee her honey now she mings; A

Winter is worn that was the flowers' bale. B

And thus I see among these pleasant things A

Each care decays, and yet my sorrow springs. A

No political connotations in this case.

It’s spring again, but all the connotations and the elements of description are different because he’s offeringus this poem into an English dress.

• Soote: sweet.
• Bud: little jams

on the tree which became bloom when they flower.

• Hath clad: has dressed The spring covers everything in green.

• Eke: also.

• From line 2 to 11 we have the same element at the beginning. We have “the” + nouns: they are all animals.

• The nightingale has renewed her feathers.

• The turtle (tortora): according to tradition, it only has one companion for its entire life and if it dies, the turtle lives alone on the tree forever.

• Spray: little branches of the tree which are covered by flowers even if they are small.

• Summer: it might be an echo of a famous medieval song “Summer has come”, but also this one talks about spring. In the Middle Ages people tend to divide the year into two seasons, not four. Summer begins in March.

• Hart: male deer. They lose their horns and get new ones.

• On the pale: on a brunch. 28Bazzani Laura Professor Petrina A.S. 2022-2023

• →Buck (daino) has left his winter coat He’s

one and he described how they change. It’s a real renewal of their body.

• The colour is green: it’s a more realistic kind of spring.
• Using the same rhymes over and over again he can play with us. The problem of the English language is that it has many words and some of them have different meanings. An example is “spring” in line 5 and 14: it doesn’t have only the literal meaning, but it also conveys the idea of rebirth.

Amor, che nel penser mio vive et regna e 'l suo seggio maggior nel mio cor tene, talor armato ne la fronte vène, ivi si loca, et ivi pon sua insegna.

Quella ch'amare et sofferir ne 'nsegna e vòl che 'l gran desio, l'accesa spene, ragion, vergogna et reverenza affrene, di nostro ardir fra se stessa si sdegna.

Onde Amor paventoso fugge al core, lasciando ogni sua impresa, et piange, et trema; ivi s'asconde, et non appar piú fore.

Che poss'io far, temendo il mio signore, se non star seco

infin a l'ora extrema?Ché bel fin fa chi ben amando more.

Translation of Wyatt:

The longë love that in my thought doth harbour

And in mine hert doth keep his residence,

Into my face presseth with bold pretence

And therein campeth, spreading his banner.

She that me learneth to love and suffer

And will that my trust and lustës negligence

Be rayned by reason, shame, and reverence,

With his hardiness taketh displeasure.

Wherewithall unto the hert's forest he fleeth,

Leaving his enterprise with pain and cry,

And there him hideth and not appeareth.

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What may I do when my master feareth

But in the field with him to live and die?

For good is the life ending faithfully.

Translation of Howard, "Earl of surrey"

Love that doth reign and live within my thought

And built his seat within my captive breast,

Clad in arms wherein with me he fought,

Oft in my face he doth his banner rest.

But she that taught me love and suffer pain,

My

doubtful hope and eke my hot desire With shamefaced look to shadow and refrain, Her smiling grace converteth straight to ire. And coward Love, then, to the heart apace Taketh his flight, where he doth lurk and 'plain, His purpose lost, and dare not show his face. For my lord's guilt thus faultless bide I pain, Yet from my lord shall not my foot remove,-- Sweet is the death that taketh end by love.

Florio wrote the first Italian dictionary. One sayes of Petrarche for all: A thousand strappadas could not compell him to confesse, what some interpreters will make him saie he ment. And a Iudicious gentleman of this lande will vphold, that none in England vnderstands him thoroughly. "V" has to be read as "u". The translation can't represent the same identical text, but it can convey the same concepts in a different way. English is a dark language and for this reason it can't represent the exact equivalent. Generations: 1. Howard: the season is burn; 2. Sidney:

here it flourishes;3. Shakespeare: when he wrote, the season of sonnets is dead.The great season of the sonnet is in the next generation, 1580s.Shakespeare belonged to the third generation. When he published his sonnets, they were already out offashion. They are published in 1609, even if some of them appeared before in other anthologies. He’s muchplayed and loved for his sugared sonnets.At the time, sugar was much less known and popular and it was used as a spice. For them, sugary wassomething very special, expensive and rare, while for us it’s something too sweet.

A book appeared called “Shakespeare’s sonnets”.Philip Sidney, “Astrophil and Stella”.It was famous such as the “Canzoniere” in Italy, even if it’s not so tragic. It’s a love story between Astrophiland Stella. It’s a sequence of sonnets.After 20 years, “Shakespeare’s sonnets” appeared. They are a sequence which is difficult to understand.

30Bazzani Laura Professor Petrina A.S. 2022-2023

At the beginning of a work, authors could write the dedication.

Shakespeare did it.

Insuing: the following sonnets;

Onlie: only.

To set forth: to begin the adventure.

The person who begins the adventure is the publisher, TT: Thomas Thorpe.

Mr. WH is the only begetter: especially in the Bible, “Beget” means to generate.

Begetter could be something very banal: the one who took the manuscript and gave it to Thomas Thorpe.

You generally dedicate a poem to someone who is protecting you or helping you.

Someone thinks that W. H. is the inversion Henry Wriothesley, who was an aristocrat. The problem is that Shakespeare also called him “mister” which could be offensive for an aristocrat.

Two third of the poem talks about the love for a young man. So, if we assume that the poet is projecting himself on what he writes, we are talking about a homosexual poem. WH could be the person Shakespeare was in love with.

Wilde wrote a short essay in