Petrarch

Petrarch's personification of the hapless lover has become one of our major models. Indeed, in many of his poems of the pain and the bitter pleasure of love, we recognize a vivid and timely picture of existential man. Humble sinner, aesthete, contemplative, man of the world, secretly tormented spirit, droll observer, and advocate of life, Petrarch's protagonist in these poems possesses a personality as complex as was the nature of his time. The 366 poems of Petrarch's Canzoniere form one of the most influential books of poetry in Western literature. Varied in form style, and subject matter, these "scattered rhymes" contain metaphors and conceits that have been absorbed into the literature and language of love. In this definitive bilingual edition of the Canzoniere, Mark Musa provides verse translations, annotations, and an introduction co-authored with Barbara Manfredi.