bore my fancy to that region where
She dwells whom here I seek, but cannot see.
'Mid those who in the loftiest heaven be
I looked on her, less haughty and more fair.
She touched my hand, she said, "Within this sphere,
If hope deceive not, thou shalt dwell with me:
I filled thy life with war's wild agony;
Mine own day closed ere evening could appear.
My bliss no human brain can understand;
I wait for thee alone, and that fair veil
Of beauty thou dost love shall wear again."
Why was she silent then, why dropped my hand
Ere those delicious tones could quite avail
To bid my mortal soul in heaven remain?

It vindicates the emphatic reality and pesonality of Petrarch's love,
after all, that when from these heights of vision he surveys and
resurveys his life's long dream, it becomes to him more and more
definite, as well as more poetic, and is farther and farther from a
merely vague sentimentalism. In his later sonnets, Laura grows more
distinctly individual to us; her traits show themselves as more
characteristic, her temperament more intelligible, her precise
influence upon Petrarch clearer. What delicate accuracy of delineation
is seen, for instance, in this sonnet!

SONNET 314.

"Dolci durezze e placide repulse."
Gentle severity, repulses mild,
Full of chaste love and pity sorrowing;
Graceful rebukes, that had the power to bring
Back to itself a heart by dreams beguiled;
A soft-toned voice, whose accents undefiled
Held sweet restraints, all duty honoring;
The bloom of virtue; purity's clear spring
To cleanse away base thoughts and passions wild;
Divinest eyes to make a lover's bliss,
Whether to bridle in the wayward mind
Lest its wild wanderings should the pathway miss,
Or else its griefs to soothe, its wounds to bind;
This sweet completeness of thy life it is
That saved my soul; no other peace I find.

In the following sonnet visions multiply upon visions. Would that one
could transfer into English the delicious way in which the sweet
Italian rhymes recur and surround and seem to embrace each other, and
are woven and unwoven and interwoven, like the heavenly hosts that
gathered around Laura.

SONNET 302.

"Gli angeli eletti."

The holy angels and the spirits blest,
Celestial bands, upon that day serene
When first my love went by in heavenly mien,
Came thronging, wondering at the gracious guest.