It is amusing to observe with what labour critics have attempted to glean from the poems of Homer, some hints as to his situation and feelings.

According to one hypothesis, he intended to describe himself under the name of Demodocus.

Others maintain that he was the identical Phemius whose life Ulysses spared.
This propensity of the human mind explains, I think, in a great degree, the extensive popularity of a poet whose works are little else than the expression of his personal feelings.
In the second place, Petrarch was not only an egotist, but an amatory egotist.

The hopes and fears, the joys and sorrows, which he described, were derived from the passion which of all passions exerts the widest influence, and which of all passions borrows most from the imagination.
He had also another immense advantage.

He was the first eminent amatory poet who appeared after the great convulsion which had changed, not only the political, but the moral, state of the world.