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Shakespeare's description of his lover's eyes as 'nothing like the sun' is both an homage and a sendup of the 300-year-old Petrarchan tradition in which the male poetic persona remains forever enraptured by an unattainable female beloved who never speaks. Beginning with a review of Shakespeare’s sonnet sequence and selections from Petrarch’s sonnets to an elusive Laura, we will problematize the Petrarchan convention of female silence by reading the poetry of fifteenth century Italian poets and 16th century French poets who successfully inserted their own voices into the Petrarchan tradition by allowing “Laura” to talk back. These include Italian poets include Vittoria Colonna (and her interactive sonnets with Michelangelo), Veronica Gambara, and Gaspara Stampa; the dueling poems of French poets Pernette du Guillet and Maurice Scève; and Shakespearean contemporaries such as Lady Mary Wroth and Sir Philip Sidney, who wrote in a mix of Petrarchan and Shakespearean sonnet modes. In the final third of the course we will apply concepts from these earlier readings to a discussion of sonnets by African-American women writers of the Harlem Renaissance, including Helene Johnson, “Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem”; Gwendolyn Brooks, “A Lovely Love”; Marilyn Nelson “A Wreath for Emmett Till”; and Margaret Walker, “For Mal.” Brief contextual readings will be introduced for each new historical period. This class is being taught in tandem with a Tuesday-Thursday Freshman seminar with more limited readings on the same subject; some recorded lectures for out-of-class viewing will be introduced. Knowledge of French and Italian is not required, but is welcome.