3. Poems 1-5 jump straight into Petrarch's love for Laura. He begins by declaring his sorrow found through love, and asking that anyone who understands love would treat him with compassion and pardon his ways, as well as pity him for his struggles. He also acknowledges that he was "the talk of the crowd, for which [he is] ashamed," and that his "raving, shame is the fruit, and repentance, and the clear knowledge that whatever pleases in the world is a brief dream." This is a rather sorrowful way to begin a long set of poems, but it certainly gets the point across: Petrarch, or the speaker in this case, has been deeply wounded by love. Love, Petrarch claims, has taken "a graceful revenge" and "took up his bow again secretly, like a man who waits for the time and place to hurt." This bold statement accuses love of desiring to hurt the poor souls it affects, and Petrarch obviously sees himself as a victim. Petrarch eventually gets around to explaining his love, a love which began when Petrarch "did not defend [himself] against... your lovely eyes, Lady." This raises the love versus lust question, seeing as it appears to have been "love at first sight." Apparently Petrarch was unguarded, seeing no reason for alarm or fear in the face of such powerful feelings. He traipsed boldly into love, multiplying his hurt. "Love found me altogether disarmed," implies that Petrarch was struck without any forewarning. He compares Laura to the sun, saying that "Nature is thanked and the place where so beautiful a lady was born to the world." Once again, is Petrarch suffering from unrequited love or unrequited lust? The relationship thus far seems rather appearance-based.
4. So far there have been no major changes in the progression of the poems. Petrarch spends the first poem telling the reader how love has affected him. The second poem is furthering this, saying how love hit him with a "fatal blow." The third poem is when he tells of meeting Laura and of Love attacking him while he was disarmed. The fourth sonnet compares Laura to a piece of heaven and the sun, obviously flaunting her beauty and attempting to talk her up greatly. The fifth sonnet puts Laura on an even higher pedestal, as she is "worthy of all reverence and honor." Petrarch remains smitten yet sorrowful throughout, leading the reader to infer that the feelings were one-sided.
5. So far this fits with everything I uncovered in my research. The poems indeed seem to revolve around Petrarch's love for Laura. It appears to be unrequited, as he would not be nearly so melancholy had she returned his "love." I find his admiration of her somewhat lust-based thus far, but maybe it will change as the poem progresses. It will be interesting to see whether he mentions her husband, and whether he makes advances on her. From what I've read, Petrarch might go after Laura, but if so she rejects his advances. Five sonnets in there has been no mention of this, but he is heartbroken and I'd imagine more will come out as the sonnets continue. As far as the style goes, it seems regular for Petrarch.
6. Petrarch is the father of the Petrarchan sonnet form, so it comes as no surprise that his poems (in Italian) follow this pattern. The translations obviously do not follow pattern, and as I'm not familiar with Italian phonics, it's difficult to decipher word patterns and sounds. From what I can tell, there seem to be a lot of end rhymes, and this fits with my knowledge of Petrarchan form. Poem five is interesting in its clever use of Laura's name - LAU - RE -TA is isolated from words within the stanza, and Laureta is the Latin version of Laura. This is the first time Laura is identified, although research would leave the reader with no doubts about the intended recipient of the sonnets.
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