Questions about Passa la nave mia colma d’oblio

1. How does Petrarch express the analogy between life and voyage?

The entire poem from the beginning to the end is an allegory of voyage; this one is compared with poet’s life that is difficult as a ship voyage in winter at midnight. His life is troubled by the not paid love for Laura and this hypothesis is confirmed by many words which are within the text like: passa la nave mia colma d’oblio, a metaphor that remind the idea of the poet’s suffering, and et al governo siede il signore, anzi ‘l nimico mio; the word signore stand for love, a love that govern the poet’s soul and that is an enemy, because it prevents the poet to live serenely.

1. What is the function of the words which remind the idea of the weather?

The function of the weather’s condition is to underline the difficulty of the poet’s life, these words are aspro mare, tempesta, pioggia, nebbia. These kinds of weather are very dangerous and maybe they represented obstacles for the poet that is not able to go beyond. Very interesting is the word tempesta, maybe this word has the function to indicate the storm of love created by poet’s emotions and feelings.

1. In which ways can an intelligent reader understand that the voyage is only a pretext to speak about something else?

An intelligent reader can immediately notice that the voyage is also a pretext to speak about something else. Indeed the poet wants to express his feelings, his troubles; he wants to speak about his moral condition. Every rowing remind a thought that goes quickly, the words aspro mare stands for his troubled life and vento eterno for no hope to change his condition.