Love

Sonnet CXXX (In Life): He Cares Not for Sufferings, So That He Displease Not Laura

by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) 1304–1374

Translated by Rev. Francis Wrangham (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Life

Love

Love, thou who seest each secret thought display'd,
And the sad steps I take, with thee sole guide;
This throbbing breast, to thee thrown open wide,
To others' prying barr'd, thine eyes pervade.
Thou know'st what efforts, following thee, I made,
While still from height to height thy pinions glide;
Nor deign'st one pitying look to turn aside
On him who, fainting, treads a trackless glade.
I mark from far the mildly-beaming ray
To which thou goad'st me through the devious maze;
Alas! I want thy wings, to speed my way--
Henceforth, a distant homager, I'll gaze,
Content by silent longings to decay,
So that my sighs for her in her no anger raise.

MLA

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CXXX (In Life): He Cares Not for Sufferings, So That He Displease Not Laura.” Translated by Rev. Francis Wrangham. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/162/.

Chicago

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CXXX (In Life): He Cares Not for Sufferings, So That He Displease Not Laura.” Translated by Rev. Francis Wrangham. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/162/.

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