| Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888. | | | | Doth Any Maiden Seek | | By Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374) |
| | Translated by Thomas Wentworth Higginson
Qual donna attende a gloriosa fama
DOTH any maiden seek the glorious fame | |
| Of chastity, of strength, of courtesy? | |
| Gaze in the eyes of that sweet enemy | |
| Whom all the world doth as my lady name! | |
| How honour grows, and pure devotion’s flame, | 5 |
| How truth is joined with graceful dignity, | |
| There thou may’st learn, and what the path may be | |
| To that high heaven which doth her spirit claim; | |
| There learn soft speech, beyond all poet’s skill, | |
| And softer silence, and those holy ways | 10 |
| Unutterable, untold by human heart. | |
| But the infinite beauty that all eyes doth fill, | |
| This none can copy! since its lovely rays | |
| Are given by God’s pure grace, and not by art. | | | | |
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