Sonnet 18

The central reason why the speaker of “Sonnet 18” loves his “lady” (Line 2) is her overwhelming beauty, or her “lovely face” (Line 2). While Laura’s specific features (her blonde hair as well as her facial features) are discussed in other poems in the Canzoniere, this particular sonnet focuses on a central metaphor comparing her beauty with light. In Italian, luce (light) is repeated as a rhyme word in the octave, appearing at the ends of Lines 2, 3, 6, and 7. While her shining face can be compared to her golden hair, the metaphor of “Sonnet 18” is more concerned with the power of the light, a life-giving power like the sun.

Beauty controls the speaker’s mind, heart, and life. Petrarch draws upon a model of courtly love from troubadours and Arthurian romances that predate him, and he inspires a specific kind of Petrarchan lover in generations of poets who come after him. The model of love defines a woman’s beautiful face as the seat of love, or what inspires feelings of love. Beauty consumes the mind, or “light leaves [one] not a thought” (Line 3) in Kline’s translation. Robert Durling’s prose translation of this sonnet, “in my thought the light remains that burns and melts,” grammatically structures the sentence so that the light is what burns and melts.