Summary

The speaker is no longer fighting, but he can still “find no peace” (1). The opposite emotions of fear and hope live within him, and he feels both hot with passion and cold with terror. He feels like he can fly at times, and at others like he cannot even stand up. He has nothing, and wants everything. He is held in prison, and yet not physically held, but incapable of escape. He can neither live nor die, though he longs for death. He sees without eyes, complains with no tongue. He wants to die, and yet he wants to feel better. In short, he summarizes, his love for another has made him hate himself. He delights in his pain, and this delight is the very cause of his pain.

Analysis

This poem is what early modern writers would have referred to as “after Petrarch...