At first, we are group number six, and our task was to write two sonnets: a Petrarchan and a Shakespearean one and then to compare them.

We followed the sonnet’s model: “My Galley Charged With Forgetfulness” by Thomas Wyatt and “Passa La Nave Mia Colma d’Oblio” by Francesco Petrarca.

The aim of our workshop was to learn how to write the structure of sonnets, to highlight the differences between a Shakespearean and Petrarchan ones and to underline the difficulties translating from an Italian sonnet into an English one.

We decided to write two sonnets about Galileo's story because we wanted to reconnect to something that reguards the Renaissance.

The problems we analyzed in the poems are the Church corruption and Galileo's pain for his daughter.

The sonnets are both arranged into fourteen lines and alternative rhyme, but the first one is organised into two quatrains and two tercets, the second one is organised into three quatrains and a final rhyming couplet.

The title of the sonnet is “Galileo’s Pain” (or “Il Dolore di Galileo”), so the reader can immediately understand from the title what the sonnets deal with. The language used is quite simple, indeed the sonnets are addressed to all people.
Despite that, in order to understand the meaning of the sonnets, you have to know Galileo’s story.
Galileo’s beloved daughter (Virginia Galilei) was a nun called Heavenly Sister Mary, who was in disagreement with him for his way of life concerning the science that hindered the Church. 
Moreover, Galileo didn’t enter the Church for many years, because he didn’t agree with the clerical institution. In addition, he was also condamned by the Church for all he discovered (the natural phenomenons like the sunspots one, the moon’s ripples, etc. that hindered the Church) so he was forced to abjure.
This was the reason why father and daughter had a very hostile relationship. Neverthless, Galileo didn’t stop loving her.
On the other hand, Virginia repudied her father and this fact broke Galileo’s heart.

There are many differences between Italian and English sonnets. In particular, the Italian language, differs from the English one, because the subject can be omitted; that’s why in the Shakespearean sonnet we can find anaphoras formed by the word “I” differently from the Petrarchan one; for example the anaphora in the first one is "...che non voglion sapere i segreti della Terra, che restan supini o chini sul panco." and “…che punto cannocchiali verso cieli proibiti, che nessun prete senza Dio mi confessa…”; the anaphora in the English sonnet is “I never go to Mess, I focus my telescopes towards prohibited skies, I do not entrust to the ecclesiastical class, I have to surrender to the people made with dies.”
An intelligent reader can notice from these examples that in the Italian sonnet is highlighted the action, while in the English sonnet the subject has great importance.
Another aspect is that the line length in the Italian sonnet is shorter than in the English one.

As regards the connotative level, an intelligent reader can notice some run on lines in each sonnet (for example in the first stanza of each sonnet; in the first line of the second stanza of each sonnet, too; and in the third stanza of the Italian sonnet) and an allitteration in the English sonnet (“...bound blindy…”).
Moreover, the function of the first and the second stanzas of each sonnet is to introduce and present the problem: Galilei’s contrast with the Church, that makes him say: “the Church is something gone away”, indeed he says “Oh unfaithful sons who only pray, with hypocritical creeds, for hypocritical aims” because he was against the Church institution.
The third stanza has the function to explain Galilei’s point of view: his attitude and his thoughts are stated. 
In the last stanza there is the conclusion, indeed Galileo surrenders to the reality and expresses his pain.
Before dying, he “leaves” the corrupted and “blind” world to his daughter, who has sided with the Church and repudied him.

The sonnets:

Il dolore di Galileo

Pace non trovo e ho da far guerra
a questi mostri dall’animo stanco
che non voglion sapere i segreti della Terra,
che restan supini o chini sul panco.

Oh figli infedeli che solo pregate
Con ipocriti credi, per ipocriti scopi;
sulle Sacre Scritture menzogne ho giurato:
l’uomo è fallace e vive tra i topi.

Io che non vado mai alla messa,
che punto cannocchiali verso cieli proibiti,
che nessun prete senza Dio mi confessa.

Mi devo arrendere a cervelli assopiti.
A te figlia vergine, da cieco morente lascio ‘sto orrore,
è stata la tua abiura di me a spezzarmi il cuore.

Galileo’s pain

I find no peace and I have to fight,
against these monsters with their tired soul
who don’t want to know the secrets which are high,
bound blindly to the Church in whole.

Oh unfaithful sons who only pray
With hypocritical creeds, for hypocritical aims;
for me the Church is something gone away: 
men are fallacious and live in surface.

I never go to Mess, 
I focus my telescopes towards prohibited skies,
I do not entrust to the ecclesiastical class,
I have to surrender to the people made ​​with dies.

To you, my virgin daughter, as a blind dying man I leave this world falling apart,
it was your abjuration to me that broke my heart.