Fifteen sonnets of Petrarch

Dolci durezze e placide repulse, / Piene di casto amore e di pietate; / Leggiadri sdegni, che le mie infiammate / Voglie tempraro (or me n'accorgo) e 'nsulse; / Gentil parlar, in cui chiaro refulse / Con somma cortesia somma onestate; / Fior di virtù, fontana di beltate, / Ch'ogni basso pensier del cor m'avulse; / Divino sguardo, da far l'uom felice, / Or fiero in affrenar la mente ardita / A quel che giustamente si disdice, / Or presto a confortar mia frale vita; / Questo bel variar fu la radice / Di mia salute, che altramente era ita.

X / / Gentle severity, repulses mild, / Full of chaste love and pity sorrowing; / Graceful rebukes, that had the power to bring / Back to itself a heart by dreams beguiled; / A tender voice, whose accents undefiled / Held sweet restraints, all duty honoring; / The bloom of virtue; purity's clear spring / To cleanse away base thoughts and passions wild; / Divinest eyes to make a lover's bliss, / Whether to bridle in the wayward mind / Lest its wild wanderings should the pathway miss, / Or else its griefs to soothe, its wounds to bind; / This sweet completeness of thy life it is / Which saved my soul; no other peace I find.