Explore "Giunto Alessandro Alla Famosa Tomba" by Francesco Petrarca on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
HE FEARS THAT HE IS INCAPABLE OF WORTHILY CELEBRATING HER.
The son of Philip, when he saw the tomb / Of fierce Achilles, with a sigh, thus said: / "O happy, whose achievements erst found room / From that illustrious trumpet to be spread / O'er earth for ever! " -- But, beyond the gloom / Of deep Oblivion shall that loveliest maid, / Whose like to view seems not of earthly doom, / By my imperfect accents be convey'd? / Her of the Homeric, the Orphean Lyre, / Most worthy, or that shepherd, Mantua's pride, / To be the theme of their immortal lays; / Her stars and unpropitious fate denied / This palm: -- and me bade to such height aspire, / Who, haply, dim her glories by my praise.