... Sometimes, in the evening, I stand below your
balcony; you hear my sighs, but you make no reply.... When I gaze at
your beauty, I burn with love, but when I think of your cruelty, I call
on death to release me." In this poem we have a caricature of
metaphysical eroticism.
In the sonnets of Petrarch, metaphysical love has become stereotyped.
Adoration has become a phrase (as Cupid has become a phrase with the
earlier poets). It is obvious that he loves Laura because the play on
the word Laura and _lauro_ (laurel) caught his fancy. I can find no
spontaneous feeling in the famous Canzoniero; all I see is erudition and
perfection of form. But among the few sincere specimens there is one
beautiful poem addressed to Mary: "_Vergine bella che di sol vestida!_"
which is not without erotic warmth. But the singer and humanist
expresses himself judiciously:
Oh, Thou, the Queen of Heaven and our goddess
(If it be fitting such a phrase to use).
So far we have observed the current which, emanating from the beloved
woman, lifted her into supernal regions and endowed her with
perfection--the mistress is stripped of everything earthly, the longing
which can never be stilled on earth, soars heavenward.
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