Petrarch

PERCEIVING HIS PASSION, LAURA'S SEVERITY INCREASES. / Never thy veil, in sun or in the shade, / Lady, a moment I have seen

HE INVITES HIS EYES TO FEAST THEMSELVES ON LAURA. / My wearied eyes! while looking thus / On that fair fatal face to us,

HE THOUGHT HIMSELF FREE, BUT FINDS THAT HE IS MORE THAN EVER ENTHRALLED BY LOVE. / That fire for ever which I thought at rest, / Quench'd in the chill blood of my ripen'd years,

HE WILL ALWAYS LOVE HER, THOUGH DENIED THE SIGHT OF HER. / Though cruelty denies my view / Those charms which led me first to love;

HER KIND SALUTE SAVED HIM FROM DEATH. / Late as those eyes on my sunk cheek inclined, / Whose paleness to the world seems of the grave,

THOUGH SHE BE LESS SEVERE, HE IS STILL NOT CONTENTED AND TRANQUIL AT HEART. / From time to time more clemency for me / In that sweet smile and angel form I trace;

HIS SUFFERINGS SINCE HE BECAME THE SLAVE OF LOVE. / In the sweet season when my life was new, / Which saw the birth, and still the being sees

IN SUPPORT OF THE PROPOSED CRUSADE AGAINST THE INFIDELS. / O spirit wish'd and waited for in heaven, / That wearest gracefully our human clay,

WHETHER OR NOT HE SHOULD CEASE TO LOVE LAURA. / Green robes and red, purple, or brown, or gray / No lady ever wore,

HE GRIEVES IN ABSENCE FROM LAURA. / The thread on which my weary life depends / So fragile is and weak,