Arrow motif
Although Petrarch was a devout Christian and spent many years in a Church career, his poetry is full of references to ancient Roman deities. One of the most common references to Roman mythology is to that of Cupid and his arrows. People who are suffering emotionally due to love are said to have been shot by Cupid's arrow. The narrator in the Laura sonnet cycle, who assuredly suffers this way, describes himself in such terms. One such example is in the first line of Sonnet #133 ("Love placed me as a target for his arrow").
Fountain allegory
In Sonnet #135, which is actually a series of sonnets, Petrarch describes a pair of fountains in the "Fortunate Islands". If a person drinks of one of them he is poisoned but dies smiling. If he drinks of the other, he lives. This, says Petrarch's narrator, could also be his own life, because he could die smiling (if Laura returns his passion) but his tears always save him and pull him back to reality.
Fire as symbol of destruction
In Sonnet #136, which is written to the Papal court at Avignon, Petrarch expresses a hope that fire will rain down from the heavens to punish a wrongdoer. In this case, fire is a destructive force.
Fire as constructive, positive symbol of passion
Throughout the Laura sonnets, the narrator feels himself to be burning with both physical and emotional desire. Although he is uncomfortable-- suffering as he does from unrequited love-- he also feels warmed, sustained, and inspired by his emotions. There is an implied danger and unpredictability.
Butterfly death as allegory for romantic disappointment
In Sonnet #141, Petrarch describes a butterfly that flies into a person's eyes: an accident that kills the butterfly and causes the person to involuntarily weep because that's what happens when an insect gets into a person's eye. The poem expands on the idea by comparing Petrarch's heart and soul to the butterfly, which flutters instinctively toward the light of his beloved's eyes. This produces his death-- or so the poem suggests-- but the speaker is so besotted that he's more sorry about the other person's inconvenience than his own destruction. Ironically, when the sonnet cycle is viewed as a whole, it's not the speaker who literally dies, but Laura.
Flower as symbol of woman
Laura is compared to a rose (Sonnet #146) and a flower (Sonnet #160). But the "flowers that her dress lightly covered" (Sonnet #126) contains a reference to part of the female anatomy. In Italian and several other Romance languages, the word for "flower" is slang for female genitalia.
