Sonnet CCXIX.

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) 1304 (Tuscan city of Arezzo) – 1374 (Arquà, Padua, Republic of Venice)



On the fair face for which I long and sigh
    Mine eyes were fasten'd with desire intense.
    When, to my fond thoughts, Love, in best reply,
    Her honour'd hand uplifting, shut me thence.
    My heart there caught--as fish a fair hook by,
    Or as a young bird on a lim�d fence--
    For good deeds follow from example high,
    To truth directed not its busied sense.
    But of its one desire my vision reft,
    As dreamingly, soon oped itself a way,
    Which closed, its bliss imperfect had been left:
    My soul between those rival glories lay,
    Fill'd with a heavenly and new delight,
    Whose strange surpassing sweets engross'd it quite.
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Submitted by halel on July 15, 2020

Modified on April 23, 2023

33 sec read
86

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABABABCDCDCC
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 646
Words 109
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)

Francesco Petrarca (Italian: [franˈtʃesko peˈtrarka]; July 20, 1304 – July 18/19, 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (/ˈpiːtrɑːrk, ˈpɛt-/), was an Italian scholar and poet during the early Italian Renaissance, and one of the earliest humanists more…

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