FRANCESCO PETSARCH, 1304-74.
If Dante was the last splendid representa tive of the Middle Ages, Petsarch was the ris ing sun of the Renaissance. The first sang the mystic contemplation of other-world ideals, tht second initiated the study and observation of the human heart and of terrestrial beauty, and was a prey to that contrast of moods which make him the first victim of pessimism in lit erature. Petrarch's love for I. ra, his habits of elegance, his affection for rare manuscripts and classic authors, his craving for perfection of literary form, jarred cruelly with the reli gious sentiment which became supreme in his later years. In Petrarch's poetry there is a cry of human suffering, a sincerity of expression which separates it from any previous composi tion. Canzoniere) is a searching analysis of a single sensation, the psychology of a single soul. When Laura dies, Petrarch's grief is a
brooding melancholy, less ascetic and more ten der than the devotion professed by other poets of the sill nuovo. There are chords in Petrarch's lyre, and Laura's praise is sung in many moods.
iI Trionfi,' an allegorical poem mostly in tersa rima, narrating the triumph of Love, Death and Fame, is a continuation of the Cansoniere. Petrarch is the poet of love, but he is also the first Italian poet who has in. tensely felt and sung of patriotism. He dreams of an Italy direct heiress of the Roman Re public of Scipio, powerful in the liberty of yet he perceives that a national monarchy is the best available form. In Petrarch's writings there is an exaggerated at tention to form, though it never quite becomes mannerism as it does with his imitators.