Question

What attitude does the speaker take toward petrarch and the petrarchan sonnet?

Answer 1

Even though Collins uses a playful tone, he uses a reference to Petrarch in order to show his true feelings of the sonnet. The last few line of the poem are, “Where Laura will tell Petrarch to put down his pen,/ take off those medieval tights,/ blow out the lights, and come at last to bed” (Collins 12-14). Petrarch was an Italian poet who wrote several sonnets to his lover, Laura. By adding the ending that Laura tells Petrarch to put down his pen, it is as if Collins is saying that it is time for the Petrarchan sonnet to end. Collins intentionally adds “medieval tights”. His tights can be compared to the sonnet form in that it is old-fashioned. It is time for the tights to come off and for a new type of sonnet to take place.