Love
Sonnet XLIV (In Life): Few Are the Sweets, but Many the Bitters of Love
Translated by Sir Thomas Wyatt (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Life
Ever my hap is slack and slow in coming,
Desire increasing, ay my hope uncertain
With doubtful love, that but increaseth pain;
For, tiger-like, so swift it is in parting.
Alas! the snow black shall it be and scalding,
The sea waterless, and fish upon the mountain,
The Thames shall back return into his fountain,
And where he rose the sun shall take [his] lodging,
Ere I in this find peace or quietness;
Or that Love, or my Lady, right wisely,
Leave to conspire against me wrongfully.
And if I have, after such bitterness,
One drop of sweet, my mouth is out of taste,
That all my trust and travail is but waste.
Cite this poem
MLA
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet XLIV (In Life): Few Are the Sweets, but Many the Bitters of Love.” Translated by Sir Thomas Wyatt. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/56/.
Chicago
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet XLIV (In Life): Few Are the Sweets, but Many the Bitters of Love.” Translated by Sir Thomas Wyatt. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/56/.
Read this poem with the Codex →
More by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
- Sonnet XVII (In Life): He Compares Himself to a Moth
- Sonnet LXXIV (In Life): He Complains That to Him Alone is Faith Hurtful
- Sonnet CXXXV (In Life): Life Will Fail Him Before Hope
- Sonnet CCIV (In Life): He Bids His Heart Return to Laura, Not Perceiving That It Had Never Left Her
- Sonnet XLVII (In Death): Just When He Might Fairly Hope Some Return of Affection, Envious Death Carries Her Off