Explore "Quanta Invidia Ti Porto, Avara Terra" by Francesco Petrarca on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
HE ENVIES EARTH, HEAVEN, AND DEATH THEIR POSSESSION OF HIS TREASURE.
O earth, whose clay-cold mantle shrouds that face, / And veils those eyes that late so brightly shone, / Whence all that gave delight on earth was known, / How much I envy thee that harsh embrace! / O heaven, that in thy airy courts confined / That purest spirit, when from earth she fled, / And sought the mansions of the righteous dead; / How envious, thus to leave my panting soul behind! / O angels, that in your seraphic choir / Received her sister-soul, and now enjoy / Still present, those delights without alloy, / Which my fond heart must still in vain desire! / In her I lived -- in her my life decays; / Yet envious Fate denies to end my hapless days.