Love

Sonnet CXL (In Life): The Sweets and Bitters of Love

by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) 1304–1374

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

Love

Marking of those bright eyes the sun serene
Where reigneth Love, who mine obscures and grieves,
My hopeless heart the weary spirit leaves
Once more to gain its paradise terrene;
Then, finding full of bitter-sweet the scene,
And in the world how vast the web it weaves.
A secret sigh for baffled love it heaves,
Whose spurs so sharp, whose curb so hard have been.
By these two contrary and mix'd extremes,
With frozen or with fiery wishes fraught,
To stand 'tween misery and bliss she seems:
Seldom in glad and oft in gloomy thought,
But mostly contrite for its bold emprize,
For of like seed like fruit must ever rise!

MLA

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CXL (In Life): The Sweets and Bitters of Love.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/172/.

Chicago

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CXL (In Life): The Sweets and Bitters of Love.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/172/.

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