Love
Sonnet CCXXII (In Life): The Beauty of Laura is Peerless
Translated by Major Macgregor (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Life
In one fair star I saw two brilliant eyes,
With sweetness, modesty, so glistening o'er,
That soon those graceful nests of Love before
My worn heart learnt all others to despise:
Equall'd not her whoever won the prize
In ages gone on any foreign shore;
Not she to Greece whose wondrous beauty bore
Unnumber'd ills, to Troy death's anguish'd cries:
Not the fair Roman, who, with ruthless blade
Piercing her chaste and outraged bosom, fled
Dishonour worse than death, like charms display'd;
Such excellence should brightest glory shed
On Nature, as on me supreme delight,
But, ah! too lately come, too soon it takes its flight.
Cite this poem
MLA
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CCXXII (In Life): The Beauty of Laura is Peerless.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/259/.
Chicago
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CCXXII (In Life): The Beauty of Laura is Peerless.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/259/.
Read this poem with the Codex →
More by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
- Sonnet XXIV (In Life): On Laura Dangerously Ill
- 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
- Sonnet LVI (In Death): Her Own Virtues Immortalise Her in Heaven, and His Praises on Earth