Explore "Questa Umil Fera, Un Cor DI Tigre o D' Orsa" by Francesco Petrarca on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
HE PRAYS HER EITHER TO WELCOME OR DISMISS HIM AT ONCE.
Fiercer than tiger, savager than bear, / In human guise an angel form appears, / Who between fear and hope, from smiles to tears / So tortures me that doubt becomes despair.
Ere long if she nor welcomes me, nor frees, / But, as her wont, between the two retains, / By the sweet poison circling through my veins, / My life, O Love! will soon be on its lees.
No longer can my virtue, worn and frail / With such severe vicissitudes, contend, / At once which burn and freeze, make red and pale: / By flight it hopes at length its grief to end, / As one who, hourly failing, feels death nigh: / Powerless he is indeed who cannot even die!
MACGREGOR.