Petrarch's Lyric Poems: The Rime Sparse and Other Lyrics

by Francesco Petrarca

For teachers and students of Petrarch, Durling's edition of the poems has become the standard one. Readers have praised the translation as both graceful and accurate, conveying a real understanding of what this difficult poet is saying. The literalness of the prose translation makes this beautiful book especially useful to students who lack a full command of Italian. And students reading the verse in the original will find here an authoritative text.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Italy, Italian Literature, Literature, Renaissance, 14th Century

657 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1368

About the author

Famous Italian poet, scholar, and humanist Francesco Petrarca, known in English as Petrarch, collected love lyrics in Canzoniere .

People often call Petrarch the earliest Renaissance "father of humanism". Based on Petrarch's works, and to a lesser extent those of Dante Alighieri and Giovanni Boccaccio, Pietro Bembo in the 16th century created the model for the modern Italian language, which the Accademia della Crusca later endorsed. People credit Petrarch with developing the sonnet. They admired and imitated his sonnets, a model for lyrical poems throughout Europe during the Renaissance. Petrarch called the Middle Ages the Dark Ages.

Reviews

[J.G. Keely · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't blame Tolkien for the legions of sad imitators in his wake, and I don't blame Petrarch for the development of romantic love as an obsessive perversion. I know it grew out of the obsessive, perverse love that the church fostered (and which may have met its climax, so to speak, in Margery Kempe's sickeningly erotic meditation on The Wound). Petrarch was a genius. He took what came before, he reinvented it, he filled it with the bizarre and the beautiful. He is the beginning of modern poetry; and though I love the epic, his small, personal journies show that sometimes, the first is still the best.

[Redsteve · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly, I was not a huge fan of the translation used in this collection. While technically accurate (as best I can tell with my mediocre Italian skills), the English versions seemed stiff. Also, while Petrarch’s sonnets about “Laura” are important works of medieval romantic poetry, reading over 300 of them in a row does get to be a bit much. It starts to feel like you’re going through the notebook of some obsessively infatuated emo teenager, who also happens to really hate the Avignon Papacy.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I embarked on finally reading all of the poems with some apprehensions. How can thousands of line on the theme of unrequited love for a woman who hardly gets any lines not get old? I was smitten by the music of the poetry this time through. It also helps that this is a great edition. Durling's terrific introduction and his judicious footnoting illuminate the richness of these poems, and his modest, close approach to translation was helpful. Sometime I'll grow into liking these a 5.

[Omri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marvelous version of the translated works of Petrarch, the sonnets are written beautifully (even though not rhymed or as such, they still resonate with Petrarch's feel, emotion and meaning). A beautiful and well written piece of art in itself, fascinating to read (unlike many of Petrarch's translations, imho), worthy every second.

[J. Alfred · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a prose translation of the 366 poems that make up Petrarch's long-narrative-via-lyric, the "Rime Sparse." While it gains in intelligibility and translability (as the translator argues in a strong introduction) from being prose, it loses all of the attraction that the poetry has as such (although of course those things wouldn't translate) and is thus a long, repetitive series of misogynistic and blasphemous complaints to Love and Laura. Until she dies, that is, and then we get a Dantean kind of Purgatorio and Paradiso effect, but man, it takes a while to get there. You can certainly see Petrarch's influence on most of the lyric writers in the English tradition, but it's important to note that most of them are playing against the conventions he popularized. So we have him to thank for, for instance, "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun," but primarily as the butt of the joke.
In general, I found this to be unpleasant reading.

[Christopher Manieri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Petrarch is one of my favourite writers. A very influential poet, he was a master of expressing the sorrow of unrequited love. Devoted to Laura, he often employs classical myth, while also conveying his deep spirituality. He skillfully depicts his emotional suffering, while exalting Laura’s beauty. He also shows an impressive level of introspection. One of his great achievements, the Canzoniere continues to inspire. This is a great translation, with a very informative introduction.

In his Secretum, it is clear that Petrarch had difficulty reconciling his ambitious quest for poetic glory with his devotion to God. As the father of Renaissance humanism, with its emphasis on human achievement, it is worth noting that Petrarch still maintained his belief in God, as evident in his other works, such as The Triumphs, which concludes with the poet finding solace in Eternity.

Many of Petrarch’s poems are available in English translation at https://www.poetryimmortal.com/petrarca/

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great scholarly version - allows the reader with minimal Italian to at least refer to the original language. A combination of poetic genius, psychological reflection, and above all, the conflict of religious and secular forces.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a thing for Petrarch, but this also gets 5 stars for being the indispensable edition for anyone with even a dash of Romance languages. Prose translations alongside the Italian, and fine scholarship.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read several translations of Petrarch's Canzoniere, although not this one, so I'm eager to take a look at it and see why it's so popular. The poems are fabulous, but the translations vary greatly in quality, lyricism, etc.

[Etha Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful poetry, and the English prose translations give enough literal guidance to get through the Italian poems if you have some Romance language awareness. Dante's 'Rime per la Donna Pietra,' included as an appendix, is lovely as well.

[J. Guapster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Greatest Italian Renaissance poet of all. Many examples of the sublime.

Try to read it in Italian, even if you have to struggle, because Petrarca is all about the fusion of beautiful images and sound. It's worth the effort because sonnets are, afterall, very short.

[Candi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm going to read (at least) a sonnet a night. I've discovered, many lovers steal from Petrarch.

[Loren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solid translations from Durling, who knows his stuff--literal rather than literary. A good start for those who have no Italian or only a bit.

[Jakob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harold Bloom says Shakespeare, others say Dante, I say: Petrarch invented us.

[Bernard]

I am setting random lines of Petrarch's poems written for Laura to several styles of original music.

[Lisa]

Reading for a summer independent study. Not sure yet about Durling's prose translations, but at least all of the poems are here

[Jennifer Lavoie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for my graduate class this semester. I enjoyed Rime Sparse, though I enjoyed discussing it more than reading it. Class discussions provided insights I wouldn't have seen on my own.

[Rifat Islam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Existential effect where the poetic Laura is who we are more concerned with rather than Laura as she existed historically. Similarly Petrarch's poetic self interacting with the poetic Laura is beautiful as she represents a constitutive lack in Petrarch's very consciousness, an expression of the view that consciousness is understood best by highlighting what it lacks.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have genuinely never read anything so beautiful and romantic. Every single poem was so gorgeous, the way he would speak of Laura with such awe was so intimate and gentle and the use of laurel trees and other imagery to represent her was beautiful. These poems actually made me upset because men used to write things like this and now they become djs. I don’t think I will ever get over these.

[silver · Rating 3 out of 5]

look i get it, petrarch is one of the most revered sonneteers so everyone wants to add something new as the act of transltion, but idk if durling really did this justice in comparison to the other translations i have read. they're all literal, i can't really capture the essence of petrarch's poetry if it weren't for the 494439 seminars i had following this.

[Penny]

And that my suffering may not reach an end, a thousand times a day I die and a thousand am born, so distant am I from health.

Et perché ‘l mio martir non giunga a riva
Mille volte il dì moro et mille nasco,
Tanto da la salute mia son lunge.

from Sonnet 164

[Falyn Owens · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for lyrical poetry.

[⌦K8U]

selected poems for literary traditions class

[oliviadelrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

MOVE OVER RUPI KAUR

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5* read some for my course, nice enough, not really my area of interest though

[Dylan marek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Petrarch son or Dante daughter?

[Billy Groble · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little one note and I know miss something not being able to read Italian. Still awesome historical piece of lit . The sun of my eyes

[Marjorie Jensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread some Petrarach for work