The Poetry Corner

Sonnet CCXV.

By Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)

O dolci sguardi, o parolette accorte. HE SIGHS FOR THOSE GLANCES FROM WHICH, TO HIS GRIEF, FORTUNE EVER DELIGHTS TO WITHDRAW HIM. O angel looks! O accents of the skies! Shall I or see or hear you once again? O golden tresses, which my heart enchain, And lead it forth, Love's willing sacrifice! O face of beauty given in anger's guise, Which still I not enjoy, and still complain! O dear delusion! O bewitching pain! Transports, at once my punishment and prize! If haply those soft eyes some kindly beam (Eyes, where my soul and all my thoughts reside) Vouchsafe, in tender pity to bestow; Sudden, of all my joys the murtheress tried, Fortune with steed or ship dispels the gleam; Fortune, with stern behest still prompt to work my woe. WRANGHAM. O gentle looks! O words of heavenly sound! Shall I behold you, hear you once again? O waving locks, that Love has made the chain, In which this wretched ruin'd heart is bound! O face divine! whose magic spells surround My soul, distemper'd with unceasing pain: O dear deceit! O loving errors vain! To hug the dart and doat upon the wound! Did those soft eyes, in whose angelic light My life, my thoughts, a constant mansion find, Ever impart a pure unmixed delight? Or if they have one moment, then unkind Fortune steps in, and sends me from their sight, And gives my opening pleasures to the wind. MOREHEAD.