Love

Sonnet CCIII (In Life): His Sorrow for the Illness of Laura Increases, Not Lessens, His Flame

by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) 1304–1374

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

Love

The sovereign Lord, 'gainst whom of no avail
Concealment, or resistance is, or flight,
My mind had kindled to a new delight
By his own amorous and ardent ail:
Though his first blow, transfixing my best mail
Were mortal sure, to push his triumph quite
He took a shaft of sorrow in his right,
So my soft heart on both sides to assail.
A burning wound the one shed fire and flame,
The other tears, which ever grief distils,
Through eyes for your weak health that are as rills.
But no relief from either fountain came
My bosom's conflagration to abate,
Nay, passion grew by very pity great.

MLA

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CCIII (In Life): His Sorrow for the Illness of Laura Increases, Not Lessens, His Flame.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/240/.

Chicago

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CCIII (In Life): His Sorrow for the Illness of Laura Increases, Not Lessens, His Flame.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/240/.

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