Love
Sonnet CCIV (In Life): He Bids His Heart Return to Laura, Not Perceiving That It Had Never Left Her
Translated by Major Macgregor (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Life
P. Look on that hill, my fond but harass'd heart!
Yestreen we left her there, who 'gan to take
Some care of us and friendlier looks to dart;
Now from our eyes she draws a very lake:
Return alone--I love to be apart--
Try, if perchance the day will ever break
To mitigate our still increasing smart,
Partner and prophet of my lifelong ache.
H. O wretch! in whom vain thoughts and idle swell,
Thou, who thyself hast tutor'd to forget,
Speak'st to thy heart as if 'twere with thee yet?
When to thy greatest bliss thou saidst farewell,
Thou didst depart alone: it stay'd with her,
Nor cares from those bright eyes, its home, to stir.
Cite this poem
MLA
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CCIV (In Life): He Bids His Heart Return to Laura, Not Perceiving That It Had Never Left Her.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/241/.
Chicago
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CCIV (In Life): He Bids His Heart Return to Laura, Not Perceiving That It Had Never Left Her.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/241/.
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More by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
- Sonnet IX (In Life): With a Present of Fruit in Spring
- Sonnet LXI (In Life): Unless Laura Relent, He is Resolved to Abandon Her
- Sonnet CXXIII (In Life): The Effects of Her Grief
- Sonnet CXCIII (In Life): Though in the Midst of Pain, He Deems Himself the Happiest of Men
- Sonnet XXXVII (In Death): He Prays Laura to Look Down upon Him from Heaven