User:H352/new sandbox4

= Cantiga de amor = The cantiga de amor is a form of literary composition from the Middle Ages that belongs to the tradition of Galician-Portuguese poetry. It derives from the cançó of Occitan troubadour lyric. This kind of poem focuses on courtly love; it talks of the amorous passion a knight feels for his lady (the senhor) but this love is rarely requited.

In terms of the themes we find in this poetry, almost all cantigas de amor deal with the poet’s coita (sadness) which is caused by his lady’s disdain or rejection of him (sanha); this lady is called the senhor, a word which had a masculine and feminine meaning at this time. As in the cansó, feudal terms are transposed to the experience of love.

The troubadour owes his senhor fidelity and loyalty, and he describes her appearance and virtues (with adjectives like ben talhada, bon parescer…). However, very few details are used to describe her since he must also keep her identity a secret (this is known as mesura).

Metrically the cantiga de amor often has the same structure as a cantiga de maestría: four stanzas of seven octosyllabic or decasyllabic verses following the structure abbaccb, abbacca, ababcca, ababccb. Parallelism is very important in these poems.

In Castile, they are called canción; in Catalonia, cansó; and in Provence, cansó.

Some of the most important composers of cantigas de amor were the king of Portugal Don Denis, Pero da Ponte, Martim Soares and Paio Soares de Taveirós.