So he was so obsessed with Laura that he wrote and wrote and wrote sonnets about her. This was his living. Was it sincere, obsessive passion, or was it his golden goose?
Someone else may have a better answer than I can give. But I don't think he was hurting for money. His various positions in the Church left him with an income and no responsibilities, so I speculate that he wrote for himself and for fame. Poem #289 expresses gratitude to Laura for her resistance to his advances, which resistance, he now realizes, was for his own good. It concludes:
...
What handsome artistry, what right results,
for one to work with words, and one with glances,
I shaping her renown, and she my virtue!
---
He was well aware that his fame would outlive both of them.
Which would you say is the best example of the marriage of passion and structure?
How about #134:
Pace non trovo, et non ò da far guerra;
e temo, et spero; et ardo, et son un ghiaccio;
et volo sopra 'l cielo, et giaccio in terra;
et nulla stringo, et tutto 'l mondo abbraccio.
Tal m'à in pregion, che non m'apre né serra,
né per suo mi riten né scioglie il laccio;
et non m'ancide Amore, et non mi sferra,
né mi vuol vivo, né mi trae d'impaccio.
Veggio senza occhi, et non ò lingua et grido;
et bramo di perir, et cheggio aita;
et ò in odio me stesso, et amo altrui.
Pascomi di dolor, piangendo rido;
egualmente mi spiace morte et vita:
in questo stato son, donna, per voi.
----
I find no peace and have no means for war.
I fear, and hope, and burn, and am all ice,
and fly the heavens and lie flat on the earth,
and grasp on nothing, and embrace the world.
This jailer neither opens up nor locks,
neither retains me nor unties the knot.
Love neither kills me, nor untwists his sword,
neither wants me alive nor pulls me clear.
Eyeless I see, and have no tongue and shout,
and long to perish and call out for help,
and loathe myself and just adore another.
I feed on pain, and through my tears, I laugh.
I'm equally appalled by death and life.
And I'm like this because of you, my lady.
----
The quatrains have an unusual rhyme scheme: a-b-a-b, a-b-a-b. I find the final two lines powerful.
So he was so obsessed with Laura that he wrote and wrote and wrote sonnets about her. This was his living. Was it sincere, obsessive passion, or was it his golden goose?
Someone else may have a better answer than I can give. But I don't think he was hurting for money. His various positions in the Church left him with an income and no responsibilities, so I speculate that he wrote for himself and for fame. Poem #289 expresses gratitude to Laura for her resistance to his advances, which resistance, he now realizes, was for his own good. It concludes:
...
What handsome artistry, what right results,
for one to work with words, and one with glances,
I shaping her renown, and she my virtue!
---
He was well aware that his fame would outlive both of them.