Love
Sonnet CXIII (In Life): His Invincible Constancy
Translated by Lady Dacre (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Life
Place me where herb and flower the sun has dried,
Or where numb winter's grasp holds sterner sway:
Place me where Phoebus sheds a temperate ray,
Where first he glows, where rests at eventide.
Place me in lowly state, in power and pride,
Where lour the skies, or where bland zephyrs play
Place me where blind night rules, or lengthened day,
In age mature, or in youth's boiling tide:
Place me in heaven, or in the abyss profound,
On lofty height, or in low vale obscure,
A spirit freed, or to the body bound;
Bank'd with the great, or all unknown to fame,
I still the same will be! the same endure!
And my trilustral sighs still breathe the same!
Cite this poem
MLA
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CXIII (In Life): His Invincible Constancy.” Translated by Lady Dacre. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/144/.
Chicago
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CXIII (In Life): His Invincible Constancy.” Translated by Lady Dacre. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/144/.
Read this poem with the Codex →
More by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
- Sonnet XXIII (In Life): On the Movement of the Emperor Against the Infidels, and the Return of the Pope to Rome
- Sonnet LXXIX (In Life): Recollections of Love
- Sonnet CXLIII (In Life): Ever Thinking on Her, He Passes Fearless and Safe Through the Forest of Ardennes
- Sonnet CCXII (In Life): She Announces to Him, in a Vision, That He Will Never See Her More
- Canzone III (In Death): Under Various Allegories He Paints the Virtue, Beauty, and Untimely Death of Laura