Explore "Quand' Io Movo I Sospiri a Chiamar Voi" by Francesco Petrarca on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
HE PLAYS UPON THE NAME LAURETA OR LAURA.
In sighs when I outbreathe your cherish'd name, / That name which love has writ upon my heart, / LAUd instantly upon my doting tongue, / At the first thought of its sweet sound, is heard; / Your REgal state, which I encounter next, / Doubles my valour in that high emprize: / But TAcit ends the word; your praise to tell / Is fitting load for better backs than mine.
Thus all who call you, by the name itself, / Are taught at once to LAUd and to REvere, / O worthy of all reverence and esteem! / Save that perchance Apollo may disdain / That mortal tongue of his immortal boughs / Should ever so presume as e'en to speak.
ANON.