Explore "He Seeks in Vain to Mitigate his Woe (Se'L Pensier Che MI Strugge)" by Francesco Petrarca on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Oh! that my cheeks were taught / By the fond, wasting thought / To wear such hues as could its influence speak; / Then the dear, scornful fair / Might all my ardour share; / And where Love slumbers now he might awake! / Less oft the hill and mead / My wearied feet should tread; / Less oft, perhaps, these eyes with tears should stream; / If she, who cold as snow, / With equal fire would glow -- / She who dissolves me, and converts to flame.
Since Love exerts his sway, / And bears my sense away, / I chant uncouth and inharmonious songs: / Nor leaves, nor blossoms show, / Nor rind, upon the bough, / What is the nature that thereto belongs.