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Francesco Petrarch

The Italian poet and humanist Petrarch is one of the great figures of Italian literature. He spent his youth in Tuscany and Avignon and at Bologna. He returned to Avignon in 1326, may have taken lesser ecclesiastic

Solo e pensoso i più deserti campi

by Francesco Petrarch (1304–74)

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16

 Alone and sad, through some deserted scene 
 Loitering I roam, with slow and measured pace 
 My eyes intent to shun the slightest trace 
 That marks where any human foot has been. 
 Alas! I find no other resting place 
 From the keen gaze of crowds, which in the shew 
 Of Joys gone by, would read upon my face 
 The ravage of the flame that burns below: 
 And thus at length, the mountain and the plain, 

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