Love

Sonnet CXLIX (In Life): Love and Jealousy

by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) 1304–1374

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

Love

'Tis Love's caprice to freeze the bosom now
With bolts of ice, with shafts of flame now burn;
And which his lighter pang, I scarce discern--
Or hope or fear, or whelming fire or snow.
In heat I shiver, and in cold I glow,
Now thrill'd with love, with jealousy now torn:
As if her thin robe by a rival worn,
Or veil, had screen'd him from my vengeful blow
But more 'tis mine to burn by night, by day;
And how I love the death by which I die,
Nor thought can grasp, nor tongue of bard can sing:
Not so my freezing fire--impartially
She shines to all; and who would speed his way
To that high beam, in vain expands his fluttering wing.

MLA

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CXLIX (In Life): Love and Jealousy.” Translated by Rev. Francis Wrangham. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/181/.

Chicago

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CXLIX (In Life): Love and Jealousy.” Translated by Rev. Francis Wrangham. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/181/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

More by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)