Petrarch: Sonnets Literary Elements

The narrator is a man, specifically an idealized version of Petrarch himself, who lives in the early 14th century. Most of the poems to or about Laura are written from the first person singular non-omniscient perspective; however, the political poems are often in the third person.

Petrarch uses a fourteen-line structure of iambic pentameter consisting of two stanzas of four lines apiece followed by two stanzas of three lines each. There is more than one rhyme structure.

Petrarch describes his beloved Laura metaphorically as an angel: a beautiful being that is more exalted and perfect than any human.

In Sonnet #133, Petrarch uses the phrase "segno a strale", roughly translated as "the target for the arrow".

Although Petrarch's narrator frequently claims to be dying of disappointment, in reality it is his beloved Laura who becomes sick and who literally dies.

Poem collection

Most of the poems are either set in, or an allegorical reference to, events in France and Italy during the early to mid 1300s

The political poems tend to have an angry or wistful tone, whereas the Laura sonnet cycle contains tones of frustration, despair, hope, and sorrow.

The narrator is the protagonist. The only real antagonists are the political opponents in the political sonnets.

The biggest conflict in these collected poems occurs in the sonnets Petrarch writes to and about a woman, generally understood to be "Laura". He loves her, mostly from afar, because he's been rejected by her. The sonnets do not delve into the reasons for the "cruelty" or rejection, although autobiographical information from Petrarch's personal writings suggests that Laura is already married to someone else. Whether that was just a convenient excuse or whether she too felt an attraction to Petrarch is not known.

The climax of the "Laura" sonnets occurs when Laura sickens and dies.

Many of the "Laura" poems in which the narrator talks about death can be interpreted as foreshadowing Laura's demise, however if the sonnets were truly written before she became ill the foreshadowing is accidental.

Petrarch does not use understatement; he is more prone to exaggeration.

In #129, Petrarch refers to a daughter of Leda. This is an allusion to a story from Ovid's "Metamorphosis" in which the Greek god Zeus appeared in the guise of a swan to a woman named Leda, and seduced her. One of the offspring of this affair was the legendary beauty Helen, who later became Helen of Troy.

In #137, Petrarch refers to the Papal court, which is composed of hundreds if not thousands of people, as "Greedy Babylon", who has improper priorities and who has crammed a "bag" full of evil deeds.

In #137, Petrarch depicts Babylon not as an ancient city but as a personification of greed and short-sightedness. In the love sonnets, however, Laura is the personification of love and all virtues and positive traits.

Describing Laura's glance as an "arrow" is hyperbolic.

The Italian word "fiamma", meaning "flame" has the same crackling fricative noise that sounds like something burning.