Ne li occhi porta la mia donna Amore,
“Within her eyes my lady carries Love,” pursues the conception further, to represent Beatrice herself as the creatrix of the divine gift of gentilezza by which the heart is capable of noble love. Two sonnets on the death of Beatrice’s father lead up to a veritable lyrical masterpiece, the canzone:
Donna pietosa e di novella etate,
“A lady pitiful and of tender age,” the anticipatory vision of Beatrice’s death—the “Dante’s Dream” of Rossetti’s famous picture. The following sonnet, in which Beatrice and Cavalcanti’s lady, Primavera or Giovanna, appear together, is the only place in the Vita Nuova where Dante calls her whom he loved by the name by which she was actually known—“Bice.” Love now no longer appears weeping, but speaks joyfully in the poet’s heart. All that was personal in Dante’s worship seems to have passed away with his earlier lamentations; his love has become a transcendental rapture, an ecstasy of self-annihilation. This part of the book culminates in the two sonnets:
Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare,
“So noble and so pure seems my lady,” in which a similar sonnet of Guinizelli’s is easily surpassed, and
Vede perfettamente onne salute,
“He seeth perfectly all bliss, who beholds my lady among the ladies”; sonnets which are flawless gems of mediaeval poetry. Then abruptly, in the composition of a canzone which should have shown how Love by means of Beatrice regenerated his soul, the pen falls from his hand: Beatrice has been called by God to Himself, to be glorious under the banner of Mary, “How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people!”
Some falling off may be detected here and there in the third part of the Vita Nuova (xxix. to xli.), which includes the prose and poetry connected with Beatrice’s death, the love for the lady who takes pity upon the poet’s grief, his repentance and return to Beatrice’s memory. A stately canzone:
Li occhi dolenti per pietà del core,