Renaissance Poetry

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that was weighted down with the chains of an abusive patriarchal society.
The difficulty that female writers faced cannot be understated. As Wendy Wall states, "When women wrote, privately or publicly, they had to confront forms and figures that alienated them from the position of speaking subject." This difficulty was perhaps the most profound in terms of their ability to set up a counter idea to the Petrarchan ideal woman. Silencing them ensured that males could define what it meant to be a woman, and Petrarch ensured that there was a dominant tradition to counteract any redefinition on the part of women writers.
Petrarch sets up for the reader the masthead of the patriarchal society, a woman who is the virgin ideal. Pure and perfect enough to inhabit the world of fantasy that made up his ideal of love, she is a goddess on earth. He does so through his use of superfluous language and rich images of decadence, women become pieces of art to be eaten with only the senses. ...

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pedestals. If the wind would take special care to treat her hair differently than others, then there must be something about her that is particularly special or worthy of praise. This is a clever way of sanctifying the idealized woman, because if nature itself reveres women in this way then obviously his use of women as ideal objects is justified. Petrarch understands this and thus the inclusion of nature as a beautifying force is useful in legitimizing the ideal woman.
The effect of Petrarch's idealization of women is to render them unable to converse with men on an equal level. Equality is something that in theory is held dear to the Renaissance, "Being equals, women can participate ...

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