Textuality » 4A Interacting
Petrarch vs Wyatt
Passa la nave mia colma d'oblio
Passa la nave mia colma d'oblio (A) per aspro mare, a mezza notte, il verno, (B) enfra Scilla e Cariddi; ed al governo (B) siede'l signore, anzi'l nimico mio; (A)
a ciascun remo un penser pronto e rio (A) che la tempesta e'l fin par ch'abbi a scherno; (B) la vela rompe un vento umido, eterno (B) di sospir', di speranze e di desio; (A)
pioggia di lagrimar, nebbia di sdegni (C) bagna e rallenta le già stanche sarte, (D) che son d'error con ignoranza attorto. (E)
Celansi i duo mei dolci usati segni; (C) morta fra l'onde è la ragion e l'arte: (D) tal ch'incomincio a desperar del porto. (E)
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MY galley chargèd with forgetfulness
MY galley chargèd with forgetfulness (A) Thorough sharp seas, in winter nights doth pass, (B) 'Tween rock and rock; and eke mine enemy, alas, (B) That is my lord, steereth with cruelness, (A)
And every oar a thought in readiness, (A) As though that death were light in such a case. (C) An endless wind doth tear the sail apace, (C) Of forcèd sighs and trusty fearfulness. (A)
A rain of tears, a cloud of dark disdain, (D) Hath done the wearied cords great hinderance; (E) Wreathèd with error and eke with ignorance. (E)
The stars be hid that led me to this pain. (D) Drownèd is reason that should me consort, (F) And I remain despairing of the port. (F) |
The sonnet "Passa la nave mia colma d'oblio" is written by Petrarch following the Italian structure. On the other hand Wyatt had tried to translate it into English (My galley charged with forgetfulness).
Petrarch
Petrarch's sonnet is organized in 14 lines: 2 quatrains and 2 tercets.
The quatrains rhyme are crossed (ABBA), while in the tercets there are repeated rhymes (CDE).
Wyatt
Wyatt's sonnet is also organized in 14 lines, but it is divided into: 3 quatrains and a rhyming couplet.
The rhyme scheme is: in the quatrains there are crossed rhymes (ABBA); and in the last tercet there is a rhyming couplet (FF).
Analisys:
In the first quatrain Petrarch describes the flowing of his boat: he says that it is full of oblivion, and that it travels, in the middle of a winter's night, through an hard sea, between Scilla e Cariddi. He adds that on its order, there is his enemy.
In the second quatrain he says that on each oar, there is a present and painful thought that it ignores the seastorm and its end. There is also a strong humid wind which is dragging sighs, hopes, desires and it is tearing the sail.
In the third stanza, particulary in the first tercet, the poet describes the rain: it is like a crying. There is also the picture of indignation (fog) which attacks the rigging, and so the poet feels himself trapped in horror and in ignorance.
In the last stanza, particulary in the second quatrain (which corresponds to the rhyming couplet), the poet says that his two points of reference hide themselves. They are reason and art, and they are died among waves; so he started losing his hopes of arriving at the port.
Finally, I think that the plot of the two sonnets may be the same: Wyatt has only tried to translate the Italian version of Petrarch into an English one, but the feelings described by the two poets are different. In fact Wyatt, with his semantic choices, conveys a sensation of sadness, hardness and severity of his life.
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In both the two sonnets, the poets use a metaphor to compare their life to a ship during a dangerous storm in the sea: they are worried by love, so they forget all other things.
In this way, in the two sonnets, there is a common theme, that is forgetfulness.
Moreover the reader notices that the structure used is the same, and that there are some analogies from the linguistic point of view. In the first two quatrains there are some likenesses: for example there is a similarity between "oblio" and "forgetfulness" which are the main figures of the sonnets, but also between "aspro mare" and "sharp seas" which refer themselves to the main figures of the poems.
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