Explore "Conobbi, Quanto Il Ciel Gli Occhi M' Aperse" by Francesco Petrarca on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
HER PRAISES ARE, COMPARED WITH HER DESERTS, BUT AS A DROP TO THE OCEAN.
So far as to mine eyes its light heaven show'd, / So far as love and study train'd my wings, / Novel and beautiful but mortal things / From every star I found on her bestow'd: / So many forms in rare and varied mode / Of heavenly beauty from immortal springs / My panting intellect before me brings, / Sunk my weak sight before their dazzling load.
Hence, whatsoe'er I spoke of her or wrote, / Who, at God's right, returns me now her prayers, / Is in that infinite abyss a mote: / For style beyond the genius never dares; / Thus, though upon the sun man fix his sight, / He seeth less as fiercer burns its light.
MACGREGOR.