Love
Sonnet CCXXIII (In Life): The Eyes of Laura Are the School of Virtue
anonymous (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Life
Feels any fair the glorious wish to gain
Of sense, of worth, of courtesy, the praise?
On those bright eyes attentive let her gaze
Of her miscall'd my love, but sure my foe.
Honour to gain, with love of God to glow,
Virtue more bright how native grace displays,
May there be learn'd; and by what surest ways
To heaven, that for her coming pants, to go.
The converse sweet, beyond what poets write,
Is there; the winning silence, and the meek
And saint-like manners man would paint in vain.
The matchless beauty, dazzling to the sight,
Can ne'er be learn'd; for bootless 'twere to seek
By art, what by kind chance alone we gain.
Cite this poem
MLA
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CCXXIII (In Life): The Eyes of Laura Are the School of Virtue.” Translated by anonymous. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/260/.
Chicago
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CCXXIII (In Life): The Eyes of Laura Are the School of Virtue.” Translated by anonymous. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/260/.
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More by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
- Sonnet XXXVI (In Life): Some Have Wept for Their Worst Enemies, but Laura Deigns Him Not a Single Tear
- Sonnet XCIV (In Life): Could He but See the House of Laura, His Sighs Might Reach Her More Quickly
- Sonnet CLVIII (In Life): All His Happiness is in Gazing upon Her
- Sonnet I (In Death): On the Announcement of the Death of Laura
- Sonnet LXVII (In Death): Her True Worth Was Known Only to Him and to Heaven