[The English translation is by William Cowper (1731-1800).]

Introduction. Like the other Italian sonnets, this may well have been composed during Milton's Italian journey. Certainly Cowper must have believed that was so since he interpolates the phrase, "on foreign ground." The conceit—that love represents a threat to the virtuous and self-confident man—is familiar. This sonnet and Sonnet 2 finish with a pair of tercets, having the rhyme scheme of cdc, dce. Another poet well known for using tercets this way was Petrarch, who has an obvious influence on this sonnet as well as on Milton's other five Italian lyrics in this group.

from myself to fly (fuggir me stesso). To escape the turmoil of the condition of love. This concept is taken from Petrarch's O cameretta 9-10. Arthur Livingston, in the Columbia Milton (1931), translated the first two lines as "Ingenious youth and guileless lover I, certain I cannot be of being ever other than I am" (59).

When tempests...and every Muse (Quando rugge...e delle muse). The depth of the speaker's devotion is similar to that found in Horace's Odes 3.3.1-8.

dart (ago). A sting from Cupid's arrow.