Petrarca:
Illustrate the love Petrarch feels for Laura by analyzing at least 2 poems you’ve read
Petrarch’s love to Laura never received reciprocation but he maintained his feelings for her for more than twenty years. These show in his poems where he expresses bouts of despair and ardor, reconciliation and snubs obviously making his poetic appeal open about the woman he loved. In these poems, Petrarch employs a balance of intellectuality and passion. There is a composition of autobiography of love for Laura revealing the inner life of the poet. In the poems, there are descriptions of the beauty of Laura and its effects on the intellect and heart of the poet. There is also a display of the joy, which her perfection gives him in both body and mind. However, above everything, he describes the depth of suffering and yearning he has for Laura.
This is because much as he is in love with the woman, reciprocation does not occur and that unconsummated and unfulfilled creates so much pain to him. He remains to the fate of adoring her from a distance, hopelessly accepting the unreturned love. His love goes beyond comprehension as years pass by and he cannot forget the woman he truly loves. Through the love of Petrarch for Laura, he successfully presents a balance of intellect and feelings. There is also a connection between life and death, earthly spiritual and earthly love, poetic grandeur and directness and these introduces a new aspect for European literature. He became an inspiration for many poets inclusive of William Shakespeare and Geoffrey Chaucer.
In Secretum Meum, there is a consequent of emotional and spiritual conflicts, which plague the heart of Petrarch. This creates the mood of despair, unhappiness and misery expressed in tears and sighs. There also exists the characteristic of self-giving, benevolence and rightly ordered love. He expresses a deeply erotic and romantic love in a violent, restless, excessive and maddening way, which is irrational and unsatisfactory. This kind of love is one that makes Petrarch aware of the profanity in it that he realizes the need for confession or risk of damnation. In the poem, he confesses his profane love for Laura through the spiritual guidance of ST. Augustine who takes him through confession and the realization of his mistake. His love comes out as idolatrous and inordinate because the degree of his love for Laura is in the intensity, which should only be reserved for God. Petrarch’s expression of his love have energy as he delves and expresses himself honestly emotionally just as he analyses them in a rational and clear-minded fashion in Sonnet 132 exemplifying his passion. In the sonnet, he explores both emotional and intellectual aspects of love for Laura identifying the paradoxes of contrary emotions such as delightful pain and bitterness to the reader.
Explain why a Petrarch is considered a modern” poet
The reference of Petrarch as a modern poet comes from the fact that his works present complex challenges, which have acted as landmarks to poetry over the years. His poems are easy to read and they leave an influence that has developed through the renascence period due to their originality and power. He analyses personal suffering and feelings in his poetry, which makes him stand out as a poet who introduces something new to the poetic world like in his Vita Solitaria of 1480. His poetry presents a considerable poetic experience and his perfected idioms formed styles later copied by modern poets. His poetry leads to a level of creating an intensity of personal feelings and a series of intellectuality reflections of the feelings. The poetry by Petrarch formed remarkable psychological attraction during its time and still offers fascinating and sharp challenges for conceptualizing love.
The modernity in his poetry is the invention of a new spectrum for displaying love experiences in glorious and destructive facets. Instead of following a chronological manner in presentation of his poetry, Petrarch displays an alteration of emotions between despair and radiance and the war, which love can create within a person. Through forth and backward movement, the poems create an edifice of memories. Unlike previous poetry, which focused on love from the angle of those who caught up with it, Petrarch stylizes his poetry from a romantically modern direction. He presents love as a unique aspect defined by involved characters and the circumstances of unfolding passions. This composition style is a direct input to modern poetry of love. The poems are fresh and original with religious themes acting as a reminder of the importance of religion in the renascence period. There is no individualization of Laura through personal details in a clear manner. All her presentations are mere reflections of patriarchs’ passion. In a brief autobiography by patriarch, her death causes serious devastation in the life of patriarch and leads to presentation of poems full of grief, hopelessness and despair. Her death leads to his dwelling on joining her through imaginations of her life in heaven.
Dante:
Dante and his politics as reflected in Inferno
Just as known that the environment where an individual lives influences his thoughts and actions, the political aura during the times of Dante influenced his poetry. The political influences of Italy saw Dante scaling different political heights, but eventually, he got exiled. Dante was an active military and political person in Florence. His military life started from his youth and he managed holding several positions in Florence. There was a division between Ghibellines and Guelphs political fronts. The Ghibellines received their support from the Germans but Dante remained active in the powers of Guelph’s, which was associated with his family. Dante managed to climb political scales to the position when he became an ambassador before being exiled by the French. His works while in exile replicate what he had experienced in his life. In his relationship with vigil, Dante emphasizes the importance of separation of the church from the state. He uses vigil for setting his allegorical terms and for the demonstration of relationships and separation of functions of the state and the church. He uses the pilgrims guide in two allegorical layers for the expression of radicalism in politics without having to express his political views directly. The representation of vigil is used as reason through a historical individual known for his intellect regardless of being a pagan.
Examine the character Dante has created of himself
Dante characterizes himself in his terza rima where he comes out as a lost hero in the dark woods and journeys around a funneled wall of nine concentric circles representing hell. The roman poet, ghost of the vigil rescues him from the dark forest leading him through afterlife. Dante characterizes human experiences through images, which convey the interpretation he has regarding human nature and existence. His characterization is through writing in first person helping his readers in identifying with all the emotions he presents wishing that the reader understands about life and the relationship the creator has with man. The character of Dante shows the pains, challenges, defeat and success people feel in life. He felt grave victimization and unjust treatment, especially through his humiliating exile experience, which led him into suffering from self-doubt as natural with an exiled man. In the inferno, Dante combines distinct images, feelings and complex and continuous narratives in the world of destiny and adventure in the inferno. The use of simile enhances the meaning and effect to the point where he sees the stars as a symbolism of divinity, hope and order
Discuss the role of the poet referring to Dante’s relationship with Virgil
The poet has the role of presenting the realities of afterlife. He takes charge of guiding Dante through the nine circles of hell. Starting from the first one, limbo is the place where the anabaptized and heathens who led righteous lives stay. The second to the fifth circles contain the place for the lustful, prodigal, wrathful and gluttonous people. The sixth circle is the punishment area of the heretics, while the violent receive their punishment in the seventh circle. Those guilty of fraud receive punishment in the eighth circle and finally, the ninth circle is for betrayers. The poet takes up the role of guiding Dante through the difficult journey full of questions, disappointments and revelations encouraging perseverance on the journey, which leads vigil and Dante to the abyss of hell. In hell, they meet the ugliness of Lucifer, but get drawn to heaven where they emerge victorious over sin when they finally see beautiful stars shinning in heaven. Vigil acts as a guide to Dante and he gives Dante the guidance he requires in life. He is lenient with Dante on some occasions to an extent that whenever, Dante wants to do some dirty jobs, he allows him to learn the hard way. Vigils disapproval of acts like arguing with sinners is not outright as much as he wants him to sympathize with them in their situation. Vigil wants Dante to be tough instead of mourning because he takes Dante as a son. There is also the presentation of Virgil as a mother figure, especially when he carries Dante to his chest and runs away from the spirits.
The woman’s role in Dolce stil Novo is that of mediator between man and GOD. How does Canto V differ in the portrayal of Francesca?
The dolce stil novo was a new poetic style, which appreciated the roles of women in the renascence period. It was a presentation and appreciation of love ideas, which entered the community as well as new linguistic and learning appreciation. The mediation role in Dolce stil Novo is for uniting man and God. It is a presentation of sinful souls on earth and the punishments received by sinners in hell. This helps in the presentation of the theme if the perfection of Gods justice. Canto III where there is claim of God creating hell because of justice. The existence of hell is for the punishment of sin and the punishments are suitable for ensuring punishment to all who violate divine perfection. In Canto V, there is the descent to the second circle, where sinners who have caused their own damnation through sin stay. This is contrary to the presentation of Francesca who is a victim of love. Circumstances victimize her because she cannot resist the power of love. She eventually turns to become a damned victim from her love. Through creation of a linguistic tradition appreciated by new characteristics of linguistic terminologies, Dante develops a personal belief in the subject of poetry, language and love. This shows through his representation of his women in a manner more than just flesh and blood. There is an exaltation of the idea of femininity through personification of theology or philosophy. There is a mediator role for Beatrice in the works of Dante. She mediates between the divine and the human world with Dante’s love for her forming the focal point of personal love theme as in the Divine Comedy. In her death, Dante draws to the awareness of God because it is in his presence that when dwells eternally. She functions uniquely to Dante through her possession of flesh and blood qualities as a woman and a acts as a channel to the knowledge of the grace belonging to God. Through the texts, it is clear that there is a connection between Beatrice and the trinity through her position as the muse of Dante. After the second meeting with Beatrice, his love for the woman ignites the need for writing poetry through her inspiration, which acted like a heavenly calling. He uses lyrics and prose to express his love, dreams and desires. The presentation of the woman in Dolce stil Novo differs with the presentation of Francesca because in the former, the woman acts as a link between man and God while in the later, Francesca does not escape the wraths of hell. She blames the book she read with Paolo leading them to the passionate kiss, which was the eventual damnation to death by her husband. She is not just an admiration of a secret lover, but falls into the trap of adultery unlike the other women who never had the chance of embracing an alternative lover.
Compare 2 of the cantos of the Inferno
In the Vita Nuova, there is a revelation of unbelievable intensity from an inner life. The love of Dante flows beyond his soul and graces the world in a mystic way. All things fade in the life of Dante for as long as he is with his lover and the significance of Beatrice is one he expects God and angels to recognize; this makes Beatrice to be more of a quasi-philosophical and theological concept than a real person with just flesh and blood. In his inferno, Dante uses the women to characterize the faith. Beatrice is used as a representation of the Catholic Church and faith. He uses the women to represent various aspects of life with vigil as a representation of the state and reason, while he uses Beatrice as a representation of the Catholic Church and faith. He uses the women as tools of representation showing how church and state ought to interact. Beatrice is not fully presented while vigil leads the pilgrimage in the inferno. The presentation of hell shows the power of fear accompanied by a lack of faith. The paradise only has Beatrice present reflecting the fact that heaven if not governed by the state or reason as Cicero’s Dream of Scipio points out. However, vigil and Beatrice exist in the purgatory as a sign that purgatory is an environment where separation of the state and the church can be a reality. In Purgatorio, he uses vigil and Beatrice present life. The state has a direct interaction with souls acting as the source of reason required for finding virtue and purging of sins, while the church is the motivator for forward progress of souls.
The exemplification of this is in the presentation of Earthly Paradise within Canto XXVll where the only enticement for convincing of pilgrims bravely to go through the flames is through the promise that they would see Beatrice. There is also appropriateness in representation of vigil as the state. In the porgatorio, Canto Vll there is the encounter of the pilgrims and the negligent rulers presenting an anti purgatory existence through the political and royal leaders. These are leaders dedicated to serving the state and having disconnected with their faith. However, Dante knows that their souls are not pious at all but he places them in the beauty of the flowering valley having sweet odors as an indication that the men deserve accolades for pleasing God through their leadership of the states bound by custom and law. Dante uses stories to present his poems emphasizing the truth of divine justice and the suitability of punishment for sinners. He does this through the incorporation of narratives by sinners into the poem as well as slowing them a chance for living above the ground. Through retelling of the sinners stories, Dante presents little consideration for the immortality of the sinners. In Canto XXIV, after going halfway in his description of the punishment of thieves, he overdoes certain scenes in Ovid and Lucan as a symbol of metamorphosis experienced in the political transitions.
