Inextricable

Sordello's "Lai a.n Peire Guillem man ses bistenza" (14) is a meditation on praise: too much praise, or just the right amount. If praise is in excess to its object--but how would this excess be measured, and by whose criteria?--then this interferes with the very manifestation of praise. Not only does praise stop looking like itself, but the agent of praise becomes the patient of blame; the poem, a gorgeous failure. Declined through four forms--razo, sirventes, tenso, canso--this commentary is focused on the inextricable bonds between the object of praise and the poet.