| Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888. | | | | Gentle Severity | | By Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374) |
| | Translated by Thomas Wentworth Higginson
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 | 5 |
| Held sweet restraints, all duty honouring; | |
| 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 | 10 |
| 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. | | | | |
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