Reply to the Canzoniere

By Laura Schiller

Between two sins my heart is wavering,

with fruitless prayers to the Lord above.

I cannot live without the man I love,

yet loving you would endless torments bring.

Like hooded falcons, I am bound to him

by virtue, honor, all that I hold dear.

They ought to be enough to hold me here -

Yet still your words enflame me from within.

O curse and bless the day when we first met!

I tried to freeze my heart to quench my fire,

To stop the power and longing of your rhyme.

Yet words of love have caught me in their net

And now I vow, by your own words inspired:

Francesco, I will love you for all time.

Author’s Note: Francesco Petrarca was an Italian poet and scholar who lived in the early 14th century. He is most famous for his Canzoniere, a collection of 366 love sonnets addressed to a woman called Laura, whom he met in a church in Avignon. She is generally believed to have been the wife of Hugues de Sade, and she did not return his love. He describes her as the ideal lady: blonde, beautiful, modest, dignified and gentle, with mesmerizing eyes.

It occurred to me that she must have been crazy not to love him – I mean, sonnets! And such gorgeous romantic ones too, almost as good as Shakespeare’s. And I thought, suppose she did love him, but was just too strongly religious to cheat on her husband? What if she had written a sonnet back to him, explaining everything? What would it sound like?

It’s awfully hard to write a Petrarcan sonnet – harder than a Shakespearean one, which I tried first but then gave up because, after all, Shakespeare came about 200 years later. And I had to remember not to sound too modern – hope it worked.

Anyway, feel free to review!