Death & Dying

Sonnet LXII: Love's Triumph Over Death

by Michelangelo Buonarroti 1475–1564

Translated by John Addington Symonds (1878) · From Sonnets (trans. Symonds, 1878)

Death & Dying

When she who was the source of all my sighs,
Fled from the world, herself, my straining sight,
Nature who gave us that unique delight,
Was sunk in shame, and we had weeping eyes.
Yet shall not vauntful Death enjoy this prize,
This sun of suns which then he veiled in night;
For Love hath triumphed, lifting up her light
On earth and mid the saints in Paradise.
What though remorseless and impiteous doom
Deemed that the music of her deeds would die,
And that her splendour would be sunk in gloom,
The poet's page exalts her to the sky
With life more living in the lifeless tomb,
And death translates her soul to reign on high.

MLA

Buonarroti, Michelangelo. “Sonnet LXII: Love's Triumph Over Death.” Translated by John Addington Symonds. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/michelangelo/68/.

Chicago

Buonarroti, Michelangelo. “Sonnet LXII: Love's Triumph Over Death.” Translated by John Addington Symonds. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/michelangelo/68/.

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