"Antithesis Is Essential in Petrarchan Rhetoric": Analysis of Sonnets from the Golden Age of Spanish Poetry Helen Sabina Hardy College

The introduction of the Italianate sonnet form into Spanish poetry of the 16th and 17th centuries brought with it both the versification and elements of one of the most influential collections of poetry of all time - Francisco de Petrarca’s II Canzoniere. In sonnets of the Golden Age, we find the typical linguistic juxtaposition of the lover suffering from dilectoso male (‘beautiful agony’) in his poetic idealization of a single lady, an antithesis carried over from the influence of Petrarch. Antithesis can also be found however in the sonnets’ contrast between sensual and spiritual love, which are presented as irreconcilable opposites: we find poetic voices in turmoil, as sexual desire and spiritual worship are incompatible with one another according to Plato’s philosophy of love. Even the use of conceits which seek to reverse the Petrarchan idea of noble suffering and resignation to a fate of dissatisfaction in Quevedo’s sonnets arguably provides an essential antithetical contribution to the development of Petrarchan rhetoric as a whole. With its Baroque and Neo-Stoical influences, the literary environment of the 16th and 17th centuries provided opportunity for the expansion of what began as a literary technique into a theme...