Love
Sonnet CLXVIII (In Life): He Regrets Having Returned Her Glove
Translated by Major Macgregor (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Life
Me Love and Fortune then supremely bless'd!
Her glove which gold and silken broidery bore!
I seem'd to reach of utmost bliss the crest,
Musing within myself on her who wore.
Ne'er on that day I think, of days the best,
Which made me rich, then beggar'd as before,
But rage and sorrow fill mine aching breast.
With slighted love and self-shame boiling o'er;
That on my precious prize in time of need
I kept not hold, nor made a firmer stand
'Gainst what at best was merely angel force,
That my feet were not wings their flight to speed,
And so at last take vengeance on the hand,
Make my poor eyes of tears the too oft source.
Cite this poem
MLA
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CLXVIII (In Life): He Regrets Having Returned Her Glove.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/200/.
Chicago
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CLXVIII (In Life): He Regrets Having Returned Her Glove.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/200/.
Read this poem with the Codex →
More by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
- Sonnet XXXVII (In Life): Laura at Her Looking-Glass
- Canzone XII (In Life): Glory and Virtue
- Sonnet CLIX (In Life): To Love, on Laura Walking Abroad
- Canzone I (In Death): He Asks Counsel of Love, Whether He Should Follow Laura, or Still Endure Existence
- Sonnet LXVIII (In Death): Her Praises Are, Compared with Her Deserts, but as a Drop to the Ocean