A Dialectic of Platonic Love in Ronsard's "Je veux brûler".

The primary aim of this paper is to provide a close reading of Ronsard's Amours CLXXII, "Je veux brûler," a sonnet that is often anthologized but has not received extensive scholarly examination beyond summary comparisons to poems by his Pléiade colleague, Joachim du Bellay, from the Olive (CXIII) and the XIII Sonnets de l'Honnête Amour (X). The Du Bellay sonnets are considered important examples of Neoplatonist Renaissance poetry, an association that seems to be applied, in the slipstream, to Ronsard's sonnet as well. The fit is not great, as Anthony Levi has suggested in the blunt lines quoted above. And yet, Ronsard's poetry is consistently studied with references to Neoplatonism and particularly to Marsilio Ficino's commentary on the Symposium , several examples of which will be discussed below. As a result of these complications and contradictions, both between the Pléiade poets and within Ronsard's own poetry, I call my reading of Ronsard a "dialectic of Platonic love." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]