– By Emeritus

Francesco Petrarca, also known as Petrarch, was an eminent literatus in the poetry world. With his uniqueness in writing poems, literary scholars carved out a poetry term, Petrarchan Sonnet, after him. Petrarchan Sonnet has two parts: the octave and sestet. The popular rhyme scheme of the sonnet is ABBA ABBA CDE CDE or ABBA ABBA CDC CDC.

 In his lifetime, Petrarch wrote 366 sonnets, and the vast majority of them, 317 precisely, were dedicated to a lady, named Laura, an embodiment of beauty, though she was not evidently known by people. He spent much of his lifetime, admiring and fantasizing about marrying a lady whom he met once in a church. Funnily enough, Laura got married two years before their meeting. However, Petrarch, an ardent suitor, would not give in to such defeat. He went ahead to buy an estate very near to his self known lover, Laura, who did not even know whether he existed. 

8 years after Petrarch bought the estate, Laura died. Despite her demise, he wrote ‘Trionfi’ for her. The love he had for Laura was undying, unexpressed and unrequited

The unexpressed expression of Petrarch about his love towards Laura underscores the assertion that writers are cowards, who often feel like they lack voices but believe in their mastery of language. Though the assertion is refuted, and it has been rendered into absurdity with the oratory prowess of some writers, Francesco Petrarch’s undoing to woo her one to one really left much to be desired. He should have channelled his intelligence to meeting her and speaking of how life was without meaning and fulfilment, without their love rather than scribbling aggressively of the love he could not express. 

Writing 317 sonnets adds up to writing 44,380 words when he could use a few spoken words to express his feeling. Petrarch’s poetic dexterity is undoubted, but his unexpressed love towards Laura is expressionless. It calls for an ineffable silence.