Francesco Petrarch Poems

From what part of the heavens, from what idea
came the example, from which Nature took
...

When I utter sighs, in calling out to you,
with the name that Love wrote on my heart,
the sound of its first sweet accents begin
...

My passion's folly is so led astray
by following what turns and flees,
...

Greed and sleep and slothful beds
have banished every virtue from the world,
so that, overcome by habit,
...

At the foot of the hill where beauty's garment
first clothed that lady with earthly members,
who has often sent wakefulness to him,
...

When the heavenly body that tells the hours
has returned to the constellation of Taurus,
power from the burning horns descends
...

Glorious pillar in whom rests
our hope and the great Latin name,
...

If my life of bitter torment and of tears
could be derided more, and made more troubled,
that I might see, by virtue of your later years,
...

When from hour to hour among the other ladies
Love appears in her beautiful face,
by as much as their beauty is less than hers
...

My weary eyes, there, while I turn you
towards the lovely face of her who slays you,
I pray you guard yourself
...