Petrarch, 358-366

3. These particular sonnets I find to be much like the last in that Petrarch is very dramatic. Part of this is probably due to the death of his beloved Laura. Petrarch even goes as far as to say that, " Death cannot make her sweet face bitter, but her sweet face can make death sweet." This is a very powerful statement, although for me it is a little bit confusing because Petrarch went most of his life without even knowing Laura, but yet he cannot live without her? Towards the end of these sonnets Petrarch begins to regret spending so much time chasing after a woman, he even asks for forgiveness from God. I find this odd because he had never really established a relationship with God, he was relying solely on Laura to bring him up.

4. Petrarch continues to view Laura in a heightened way, as if he put her on a pedestal, but this time it is slightly different. His heightened views of Laura appear when he asserts that "her sweet face can make death sweet." However, since Laura has died he has lost his will to live which he never would have done if she was still in his life. Also, in previous sonnets he was unable to recognize that loving Laura and chasing after her was a waste of time.

5. I did not find much in my research that would show that this section is either typical or not of Petrarch. However, as I have previously mentioned I think it was unusual of Petrarch to give up on his love (or lust) for Laura after many, many years.

6. I think that due to the death of Laura and Petrarch's realization that after all of this time he was in love with a woman who never really loved him back made the tone of these sonnets different. Petrarch's view of Laura dramatically changed in this section from him being completely infatuated with her to him recognizing that she was not really worth it and it shows in his negative tone where he makes it clear that he has surrendered. For the most part rhyme scheme was the same, and it was his typical format except for sonnet 359 which was abnormally long.