| Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888. | | | | Visions of Laura | | By Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374) |
| | Translated by Thomas Russell
IF, here reclining while I weep my woes, | |
| The turtle near me tells her plaintive tale, | |
| Or headlong brook with warbling murmur flows, | |
| Or green leaves rustle to the sighing gale,— | |
| In each low sound, that makes these rocks reply, | 5 |
| I seem my Laura’s long-lost voice to hear, | |
| And oft, bright beaming on my raptured eye, | |
| Her charms more lovely than in life appear; | |
| A Naiad oft, emerging from the flood, | |
| Graceful she seems to tread the dimpling wave, | 10 |
| Oft glides along, a Goddess of the wood, | |
| Oft sits, the Nymph of this sequestered cave, | |
| Oft mounting beckons from a cloud of light, | |
| Till Heaven at length receives her from my sight. | | | | |
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