The Poetry Corner

Sonnet LXXXIV.

By Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)

Non veggio ove scampar mi possa omai. AFTER FIFTEEN YEARS HER EYES ARE MORE POWERFUL THAN AT FIRST. No hope of respite, of escape no way, Her bright eyes wage such constant havoc here; Alas! excess of tyranny, I fear, My doting heart, which ne'er has truce, will slay: Fain would I flee, but ah! their amorous ray, Which day and night on memory rises clear, Shines with such power, in this the fifteenth year, They dazzle more than in love's early day. So wide and far their images are spread That wheresoe'er I turn I alway see Her, or some sister-light on hers that fed. Springs such a wood from one fair laurel tree, That my old foe, with admirable skill, Amid its boughs misleads me at his will. MACGREGOR.