Close Talking

Connor and Jack close out National Poetry Month 2021 with a series of episodes exploring the history and enduring popularity of one of poetry's iconic forms: the sonnet. In episode three they travel back to cusp-of-the-Renaissance-Italy to discuss Petrarch, one of the earliest and best known masters of the sonnet. They discuss his infatuation with a woman named Laura, dig into one of his works, and even bring the conversation around to the MCU. Sonnet 90 By: Petrarch (translated by Anthony Mortimer) Upon the breeze she spread her golden hair That in a thousand gentle knots was turned And the sweet light beyond all measure burned In eyes where now that radiance is rare; And in her face there seemed to come an air Of pity, true or false, that I discerned: I had love’s tinder in my breast unburned Was it a wonder if it kindled there? She moved not like a mortal, but as though She bore an angel’s form, her words had then A sound that simple human voices lack; A heavenly spirit, a living sun Was what I saw; n