Io m'aggio posto in core a Dio servire

Jacopo da Lentino [Giacomo da Lentini]

General Description

Date: 1235?
Rhyme: abbaabbacdcdcd
Meter: hendecasyllables
Genre: sonnet

Bibliography

“Table of Poets” in Early Italian Poets vol. 1, xxvi-xxvii.

◦ Valeriani and Lampredi, Poeti del primo secolo vol. 1, 319.

◦ Panvini, Le rime della scuola siciliana vol. 1, 49.

◦ Contini, Poeti de duecento vol. 1, 80; vol. 2, 805.

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

The Lentino sonnet remains one of the most admired of the early works of the Sicilian School. The theme of a paradisal existence intimately bound to the lover's experience of his lady is of course common, but what distinguishes the treatment of this theme is the delicacy with which the poet handles it, as here. The theme skirts close to religious error, and the trick is to develop the idea of the divine qualities of the beloved without courting irreverence.

See DGR's translation for further commentary.

Electronic Archive Edition: 1