Sonnet XXXI
Read 'Sonnet XXXI' by 'Francesco Petrarch' and provide your summary and literary analysis in the comments section below.
SONNET XXXI.
Ov' è la fronte che con picciol cenno.
HE ENUMERATES AND EULOGISES THE GRACES OF LAURA.
Where is the brow whose gentlest beckonings ledMy raptured heart at will, now here, now there?Where the twin stars, lights of this lower sphere,Which o'er my darkling path their radiance shed?Where is true worth, and wit, and wisdom fled?The courteous phrase, the melting accent, where?Where, group'd in one rich form, the beauties rare,Which long their magic influence o'er me shed?Where is the shade, within whose sweet recessMy wearied spirit still forgot its sighs,And all my thoughts their constant record found?Where, where is she, my life's sole arbitress?—Ah, wretched world! and wretched ye, mine eyes(Of her pure light bereft) which aye with tears are drown'd.
Wrangham. Where is that face, whose slightest air could moveMy trembling heart, and strike the springs of love?That heaven, where two fair stars, with genial ray,Shed their kind influence on life's dim way?Where are that science, sense, and worth confess'd?That speech by virtue, by the graces dress'd?Where are those beauties, where those charms combined,That caused this long captivity of mind?Where the dear shade of all that once was fair,The source, the solace, of each amorous care—My heart's sole sovereign, Nature's only boast?—Lost to the world, to me for ever lost!
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