Philip Ayres - The Resolution: A Sonnet of Petrarch out of Italian lyrics

O Time! Oh rolling Heavens, that fly so fast, And cheat us mortals ignorant and blind! Oh fugitive Day, swifter than bird or wind! Your frauds I see, by all my suff'rings past. But pardon me, 'tis I myself must blame, Nature that spreads your wings, and makes you fly, To me gave eyes, that I my ills might spy: Yet I retain'd them to my grief, and shame. Time was I might, and Time is still I may Direct my steps in a securer way, And end this sad infinity of ill; Yet 'tis not from thy yoke, O Love, I part, But the effects; I will reclaim my heart: Virtue's no chance, but is acquir'd by sk**.