SOURCE: Cervo, Nathan A. “Petrarch's Cervo and Cerva: The Secret of D. G. Rossetti's ‘The Stream's Secret’.” Victorian Poetry 28, no. 2 (summer 1990): 158-63.

In the following essay, Cervo maintains that “The Stream's Secret” is concerned with the reconciliation of animus and anima.

In the third volume of his Il mistero dell'amor platonico del medio evo (The mystery of platonic love in the middle ages),¹ Gabriele Rossetti discusses the alchemic role of il Cervo (the Stag) and la Cerva (the Hind) in Petrarch's poetry. The former he identifies with Lauro (Laurel), the latter, with Laura (a pun on l'aura, “the aura,” signifying the divine emanation of sapienza, wisdom, “the science of sciences,” or gnosis). The “Laura” to whom Petrarch wrote his love poetry is thus revealed to be no more than a “screen” (schermo)² for “truth.” Taken in conjunction with Lauro, Laura is to be read as signifying the olive...