Reading Response on Francis Petrarch sonnets - Bonus will be given for quality - Essay Example

God creates a beauty bur rare, for He must first create a thousand hearts to suffer!-ask Petrarch again! Love baffles definition, each one sees a new horizon; to get at the meaning of this read the sonnets of Petrarch again and again! If one tries to research the definition of love through the poetic creations of Petrarch, one would probably discover that suffering is a sort of pleasure in the domain of love, and mostly it is the shared suffering. Suffering and enjoyment are alternative beats of the same heart, if an authentic definition is to be drafted as for the relationship between the lovers.

In the area of true love there is neither victory nor defeat, there is only permanent effort. To Petrarch, process of loving is more important than the fructification of love! Love for truth, painful experiences, sticking to the grassroots realities, imagination based on the practical vision makes a brilliant writer or a poet or both. Painful experiences are the foundation stone for the magnificent mansion of poetry. Time factor, societal and cultural traditions of the era in which the poet lived, deeply impact the poetic creations.

Petrarch shines in the horizon of poetry in the 14th century. Italy is the citadel of romantic and religious poetry. The wise ones say that true love goes on multiplying and passion diminishes with time. The passion in the inner world of Petrarch flows through his 366 sonnets (one sonnet a day, including one for the leap year!) for Laura. That Laura is probably not aware of his love for her imbues mysticism to the sonnets. They say true love does not even expect to be loved back. Love poetry reaches the pinnacle of perfection in the poetry of Petrarch and it mesmerizes the future generation of poets.

If there is a true critic of poetry of Petrarch, it is the poet himself. Love within him constantly evolves and it is grows like the octopus in all directions. The waves of his love do not have a shore to hit at and the churning process is going on over which he has no control although he is trying his best to exercise control. He has a serious problem with his love-life. His personal feelings and the ideal concept of love as per the religious principles which he believes in and follows clash, and the poet does not know which way to go.

He has a tough psychological journey to contend with. Petrarch knows that he will not be able to get his love; when love is denied, one naturally becomes cynical. But Petrarch chooses a better option. He decides to love life, its trials, tribulations, duty and beauty. He is brought up in the aura of religion and literature when his mind is impressionable. As a child he grows in an idyllic rural retreat and his father is working for Papacy. He is attached to the Church but not as a working priest.

Most of his writings are in Latin. His sonnets do not tell a story in chronological order but depicts the state of his mind and it alternates between darkness and light. The most significant event related to his inner world happens in his life on God Friday, April 6, 1327, in a church in Avignon. Love at first sight challenges him, and “Laura” (breeze) with her flowery knock floors him forever. Petrarch laments, in his sonnet 3, “It was the day when the sun’s rays turned pale with grief for his Maker when I was taken and I did not defend myself against it.

”(Petrarch, n.p.) There is psychological realism in the