Explore "I' Pur Ascolto, E Non Odo Novella" by Francesco Petrarca on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
HEARING NO TIDINGS OF HER, HE BEGINS TO DESPAIR.
Still do I wait to hear, in vain still wait, / Of that sweet enemy I love so well: / What now to think or say I cannot tell, / 'Twixt hope and fear my feelings fluctuate: / The beautiful are still the marks of fate; / And sure her worth and beauty most excel: / What if her God have call'd her hence, to dwell / Where virtue finds a more congenial state? / If so, she will illuminate that sphere / Even as a sun: but I -- 'tis done with me! / I then am nothing, have no business here! / O cruel absence! why not let me see / The worst? my little tale is told, I fear, / My scene is closed ere it accomplish'd be.