«Vedi, Padre del Ciel, che dolce raggio | D’occhi soavi e rei»: vaghezze liriche nella Parte “sacra” delle rime tassiane

In spite of the geometric and tripartite editorial design, which Tasso set up, on the basis of thematic criteria, in the years following his imprisonment at S. Anna, the Terza parte of the Rime, formally dedicated to spiritual poems, is certainly the most problematic of the three: not only due to its state of incompleteness, but also because of the heterogeneity of its content. In the status testified by the ms. Vat. Lat. 10980, the nucleus of poems actually destined to “sacred things” is in fact scarce, while encomiastic compositions and occasional rhymes prevail, concentrated in the first section of the book (I-CXXXVI). In order to favour a macro-textual reading, which can at least justify the progression of an evolutionary path ‒ existential and poetic ‒ that began with the narration of youthful loves in the first Part, this essay crosses the composite final collection in light of a dialectical relationship with the theme and the poetic style of amorous passion. Although the recurring rhymes of moral instruction, in which love is fought as an “internal enemy”, seem to adequately anticipate the spiritual outcome of the book and the poet’s repentance, there is no lack of poems that signal the persistence of a rhetorical code, of a linguistic mixture ‒ that of the sweet lyrical vagueness ‒ that continues to challenge the most inspired intentions of a religious conversion.