Love

Sonnet LXXV (In Life): Having Once Surrendered Himself, He is Compelled Ever to Endure the Pangs of Love

by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) 1304–1374

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

Love

Weary with expectation's endless round,
And overcome in this long war of sighs,
I hold desires in hate and hopes despise,
And every tie wherewith my breast is bound;
But the bright face which in my heart profound
Is stamp'd, and seen where'er I turn mine eyes,
Compels me where, against my will, arise
The same sharp pains that first my ruin crown'd.
Then was my error when the old way quite
Of liberty was bann'd and barr'd to me:
He follows ill who pleases but his sight:
To its own harm my soul ran wild and free,
Now doom'd at others' will to wait and wend;
Because that once it ventured to offend.

MLA

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet LXXV (In Life): Having Once Surrendered Himself, He is Compelled Ever to Endure the Pangs of Love.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/95/.

Chicago

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet LXXV (In Life): Having Once Surrendered Himself, He is Compelled Ever to Endure the Pangs of Love.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/95/.

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