Love
Sonnet LXXXV (In Life): He Apostrophizes the Spot Where Laura First Saluted Him
anonymous (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Life
Ah, happiest spot of earth! in this sweet place
Love first beheld my condescending fair
Retard her steps, to smile with courteous grace
On me, and smiling glad the ambient air.
The deep-cut image, wrought with skilful care,
Time shall from hardest adamant efface,
Ere from my mind that smile it shall erase,
Dear to my soul! which memory planted there.
Oft as I view thee, heart-enchanting soil!
With amorous awe I'll seek--delightful toil!
Where yet some traces of her footsteps lie.
And if fond Love still warms her generous breast,
Whene'er you see her, gentle friend! request
The tender tribute of a tear--a sigh.
Cite this poem
MLA
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet LXXXV (In Life): He Apostrophizes the Spot Where Laura First Saluted Him.” Translated by anonymous. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/107/.
Chicago
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet LXXXV (In Life): He Apostrophizes the Spot Where Laura First Saluted Him.” Translated by anonymous. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/107/.
Read this poem with the Codex →
More by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
- Sonnet XXXVI (In Life): Some Have Wept for Their Worst Enemies, but Laura Deigns Him Not a Single Tear
- Madrigale IV (In Life): A Prayer to Love That He Will Take Vengeance on the Scornful Pride of Laura
- Sonnet CLX (In Life): To See and Hear Her is His Greatest Bliss
- Sonnet CCXXVII (In Life): He Laments His Absence from Laura and Colonna, the Only Objects of His Affection
- Sonnet LXVI (In Death): The Laurel, in Whom He Placed All His Joy Has Been Taken from Him to Adorn Heaven