Love
Sonnet CCXV (In Life): He Sighs for Those Glances from Which, to His Grief, Fortune Ever Delights to Withdraw Him
Translated by Rev. Francis Wrangham (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Life
O angel looks! O accents of the skies!
Shall I or see or hear you once again?
O golden tresses, which my heart enchain,
And lead it forth, Love's willing sacrifice!
O face of beauty given in anger's guise,
Which still I not enjoy, and still complain!
O dear delusion! O bewitching pain!
Transports, at once my punishment and prize!
If haply those soft eyes some kindly beam
(Eyes, where my soul and all my thoughts reside)
Vouchsafe, in tender pity to bestow;
Sudden, of all my joys the murtheress tried,
Fortune with steed or ship dispels the gleam;
Fortune, with stern behest still prompt to work my woe.
Cite this poem
MLA
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CCXV (In Life): He Sighs for Those Glances from Which, to His Grief, Fortune Ever Delights to Withdraw Him.” Translated by Rev. Francis Wrangham. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/252/.
Chicago
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CCXV (In Life): He Sighs for Those Glances from Which, to His Grief, Fortune Ever Delights to Withdraw Him.” Translated by Rev. Francis Wrangham. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/252/.
Read this poem with the Codex →
More by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
- Sonnet X (In Life): To Stefano Colonna the Elder, Inviting Him to the Country
- Sonnet LXII (In Life): Though Not Secure Against the Wiles of Love, He Feels Strength Enough to Resist Them
- Sonnet CXXIV (In Life): He Recalls Her as He Saw Her When in Tears
- Sonnet CXCIV (In Life): At Her Return, His Sorrows Vanish
- Sonnet XXXVIII (In Death): Love and He Seek Laura, but Find No Traces of Her Except in the Sky