Guido io vorrei…, or wanting the impossible

Dante’s sonnet Guido, ‘i vorrei and Cavalcanti’s response, S’io fosse quelli, are traditionnaly read mainly as part of a diatribe on lyric poetry and the conception of love. The aim of this article is to consider them also as an early sign of a clash between two visions of society and two opposite “forms of life”. If Dante’s sonnet is configured as an apodosis, Cavalcanti’s response sonnet provides a protasis; to Dante’s unrealizable velleitas (poetic project and social utopia), Guido opposes a vision which sounds like a harsh reminder of the reality of a material world ruled by determinism.