Described are optical methods and reagents for sequencing polypeptides. A probe that exhibits different spectral properties when conjugated to different N-terminal amino acids is conjugated to the N-terminal amino acid of a polypeptide. Sequentially detecting one or more spectral properties of the probe conjugated to the N-terminal amino acid and cleaving the N-terminal amino acid produces sequence information of the polypeptide. The use of super-resolution microscopy allows for the massively parallel sequencing of individual polypeptide molecules in situ such as within a cell. Also described are probes comprising hydroxymethyl rhodamine green, an isothiocyanate group and a protecting group.