Love

Sonnet CIV (In Life): Love's Inconsistency

by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) 1304–1374

Translated by Sir Thomas Wyatt (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Life

Love

I fynde no peace and all my warre is done,
I feare and hope, I bourne and freese lyke yse;
I flye above the wynde, yet cannot ryse;
And nought I have, yet all the worlde I season,
That looseth, nor lacketh, holdes me in pryson,
And holdes me not, yet can I escape no wyse.
Nor lets me leeve, nor die at my devyce,
And yet of death it giveth none occasion.
Without eye I see, and without tongue I playne;
I desyre to perishe, yet aske I health;
I love another, and yet I hate my self;
I feede in sorrow and laughe in all my payne,
Lykewyse pleaseth me both death and lyf,
And my delight is cawser of my greif.

MLA

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CIV (In Life): Love's Inconsistency.” Translated by Sir Thomas Wyatt. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/133/.

Chicago

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CIV (In Life): Love's Inconsistency.” Translated by Sir Thomas Wyatt. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/133/.

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