Symbols, Imagery, Wordplay
Form and Meter
You might have guessed by the name of this form that we're witnessing the very beginning of this special type of poetry in "Chiare, fresche et dolci acque." Petrarch is not really inventing anythin...
Speaker
An utterly smitten Petrarch is the speaker in this poem (and the other 365 in the collection). Of course, it's never a great idea to assume that the poet is the same person as the speaker. And sure...
Setting
Petrarch does not mention specifics concerning the "clear, fresh and sweet waters" he addresses in the poem. But you can bet that scholars have spent a long time debating just which watery body thi...
Sound Check
We're sorry to do it to you, but we'll need to have this discussion in Italian. While some translations work hard to keep the rhyme scheme, alliteration, assonance, and internal rhymes intact, it's...
What's Up With the Title?
When it's not simply referred to by its number, this poem takes the first line of verse as its title. Why? It wasn't part of the convention of the late fourteenth century to give short poems—or e...
Calling Card
Aside from niceties of verse form (and the medieval Italian that it's written in), this is one sure-fire way to verify the parentage of Petrarch's poetry. He can never be separated from his beloved...
Tough-o-Meter
Petrarch's poetry can require some serious slogging to get through—take Canzone 127, the next poem in the sequence, for instance. But this particular poem is more like a walk in the park (quite l...
Trivia
Petrarch used and popularized the term "Dark Ages" to refer to the medieval period in Europe. (Source.) There is a mummified kitty that still sits in Petrarch's house in Arquà Petrarca. Was it rea...
Steaminess Rating
There may be intense desire and sexual longing at the back of these words, but you won't see anything explicit here. (Head on over to Ovid or Boccaccio if you're looking for something more titillat...
Allusions
The Sorgue and Fontaine-de-Vaucluse: We know from Petrarch's other writings (and because of his residence in Vaucluse) that he had a great love for the beautiful Sorgue River in the south of France...