Love
Sonnet III (In Life): He Blames Love for Wounding Him on a Holy Day (Good Friday)
Translated by Rev. Francis Wrangham (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Life
'Twas on the morn, when heaven its blessed ray
In pity to its suffering master veil'd,
First did I, Lady, to your beauty yield,
Of your victorious eyes th' unguarded prey.
Ah! little reck'd I that, on such a day,
Needed against Love's arrows any shield;
And trod, securely trod, the fatal field:
Whence, with the world's, began my heart's dismay.
On every side Love found his victim bare,
And through mine eyes transfix'd my throbbing heart;
Those eyes, which now with constant sorrows flow:
But poor the triumph of his boasted art,
Who thus could pierce a naked youth, nor dare
To you in armour mail'd even to display his bow!
Cite this poem
MLA
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet III (In Life): He Blames Love for Wounding Him on a Holy Day (Good Friday).” Translated by Rev. Francis Wrangham. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/2/.
Chicago
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet III (In Life): He Blames Love for Wounding Him on a Holy Day (Good Friday).” Translated by Rev. Francis Wrangham. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/2/.
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More by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
- Sestina II (In Life): Though Despairing of Pity, He Vows to Love Her Unto Death
- Sonnet LXXXIII (In Life): To Paudolfo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini
- Sonnet CXLIV (In Life): To Be Near Her Recompenses Him for All the Perils of the Way
- 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