Petrarch, 6-16

3. In these sonnets, Petrarch's attraction to Laura becomes even more evident. I also feel that it becomes obvious that his feelings for her are unrequited. He feels so strongly towards her and it is implied that he feels that he did not have any other choice but to love her. Petrarch has become so invested in his love for Laura that it holds so much power over him and it could potentially destroy him. After reading these sonnets I am not convinced that what Petrarch feels for Laura is love. He gives many descriptions of her physically, and speaks of his desires for her to bring him up, but is that love? Is he merely captivated by her beauty or perhaps in love with the idea of her and the fact that she could be his pathway to Heaven? Towards the end of these sonnets he alludes to the idea that he can only be free of his love in death.


4. I think that these last sonnets continue to discuss Petrarch's feelings for Laura. This last section is very similar to the last although his feelings seem to be more dramatic. Laura seems to have a hold on him, so strong that he feels powerless to release himself from it. Although these sonnets continue to talk about Laura, there are a few random ones also. The seventh sonnet, for example, refers to at least a few of the seven deadly sins such as gluttony or perhaps sloth. Also, there is a hint of Petrarch's humanistic views when he suggests the importance of poetry and higher education.



5. I found that the sonnets that were not discussing how Petrarch views Laura such as the ones speaking of poetry very much supported what I found in my research. Petrarch speaks of the importance of appreciating poetry, higher education, and religion which fall right in line with his humanistic views and support the name Petrarch was given, "Father of Humanism".

6. Nothing much has changed regarding Petrarch's style since the last section. He continues to employ the same rhyme scheme, however, I did not see any examples where Petrarch played on Laura's nam, as he did in the last section.