Love

Sonnet CI (In Life): Reply to a Sonnet of Jacopo Da Lentino

by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) 1304–1374

Translated by Major Macgregor (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Life

Love

Ways apt and new to sing of love I'd find,
Forcing from her hard heart full many a sigh,
And re-enkindle in her frozen mind
Desires a thousand, passionate and high;
O'er her fair face would see each swift change pass,
See her fond eyes at length where pity reigns,
As one who sorrows when too late, alas!
For his own error and another's pains;
See the fresh roses edging that fair snow
Move with her breath, that ivory descried,
Which turns to marble him who sees it near;
See all, for which in this brief life below
Myself I weary not but rather pride
That Heaven for later times has kept me here.

MLA

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CI (In Life): Reply to a Sonnet of Jacopo Da Lentino.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/130/.

Chicago

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CI (In Life): Reply to a Sonnet of Jacopo Da Lentino.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/130/.

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