Love

Sonnet CLXXXII (In Life): All Nature Would Be in Darkness Were She, Its Sun, to Perish

by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) 1304–1374

Translated by Rev. Francis Wrangham (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Life

Love

Where'er she moves, whatever dames among,
Beauteous or graceful, matchless she below.
With her fair face she makes all others show
Dim, as the day's bright orb night's starry throng.
And Love still whispers, with prophetic tongue,--
"Long as on earth is seen that glittering brow,
Shall life have charms: but she shall cease to glow
And with her all my power shall fleet along,
Should Nature from the skies their twin-lights wrest;
Hush every breeze, each herb and flower destroy;
Strip man of reason--speech; from Ocean's breast
His tides, his tenants chase--such, earth's annoy;
Yea, still more darken'd were it and unblest,
Had she, thy Laura, closed her eyes to love and joy."

MLA

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CLXXXII (In Life): All Nature Would Be in Darkness Were She, Its Sun, to Perish.” Translated by Rev. Francis Wrangham. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/217/.

Chicago

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CLXXXII (In Life): All Nature Would Be in Darkness Were She, Its Sun, to Perish.” Translated by Rev. Francis Wrangham. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/217/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

More by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)