Textuality » 4A Interacting

GPellis-Compariosion of sonnets
by GPellis - (2010-11-10)
Up to  4 A - Analysing sonnetsUp to task document list
 

Comparision of "Passa la nave mia colma d'oblio" and "My galley charged with forgetfulness"

These two sonnets belong to the Petrarchan type of sonnet because they have two quatrains and two triplet.

The Italian one is the original because it is written by Petrarch and the second one is only e translation by Wyatt. The reader can understand this because the rhythm of the English one is not as fluent as the Italian one.

As a matter of fact sound devices are not so clear in the English one, and I think that poems can be better be understood in the original form because idioms of every language changes so the translators can't translate literally because the sense of the phrases could change or not be understood by the reader.

Petrarch describes his existential condition through the allegory of life compared to a sea voyage.
The poet says that his ship, laden with forgetfulness passes through a stormy sea, in the middle of the night and during winter, in a treacherous as the Straits of Messina at the helm of the ship is Love, his master, and actually enemy.

The oars are manned by impulsive and perverted thoughts which led him to defy the storm with derision and the inevitable tragic conclusion in a shipwreck, while the strong wind (sighs, hopes and desires), pregnant with rain, tears up the sails.
Rain and fog (tears and fury) macerate the shrouds (mixture of ignorance and errors), now loose.
Are out of sight of the poet of the stars that usually indicated the route: in the midst of this sea, he can no longer rely on either the theory or the art of navigation, to the point that begins to despair of ever reaching port.
Metaphors aside, the very troubled Petrarch defines his moral and mental state: he feels himself in a desperate state of mind, completely at the mercy of amorous passion, which not only cancels his will, but to self-destruction through every kind of negative thoughts.
The suffering continues, alternating hopes and disappointments, the ceaseless and frustrated desire, with the corollary of tears and indignation, have sapped the rational and positive forces of his mind, overwhelmed by a long series of errors and an awareness of not able to manage his passion.

Finally he couldn't see his lover so he is aware of not being able to manage his own life.