Love
Sonnet CCXIV (In Life): To His Longing to See Her Again is Now Added the Fear of Seeing Her No More
Translated by Major Macgregor (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Life
Uncertain of my state, I weep and sing,
I hope and tremble, and with rhymes and sighs
I ease my load, while Love his utmost tries
How worse my sore afflicted heart to sting.
Will her sweet seraph face again e'er bring
Their former light to these despairing eyes.
(What to expect, alas! or how advise)
Or must eternal grief my bosom wring?
For heaven, which justly it deserves to win,
It cares not what on earth may be their fate,
Whose sun it was, where centred their sole gaze.
Such terror, so perpetual warfare in,
Changed from my former self, I live of late
As one who midway doubts, and fears and strays.
Cite this poem
MLA
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CCXIV (In Life): To His Longing to See Her Again is Now Added the Fear of Seeing Her No More.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/251/.
Chicago
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CCXIV (In Life): To His Longing to See Her Again is Now Added the Fear of Seeing Her No More.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/251/.
Read this poem with the Codex →
More by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
- Canzone VII (In Life): He Would Console Himself with Song, but is Constrained to Weep
- Sonnet CXI (In Life): To One Who Spoke to Him of Laura
- Sonnet CLXXX (In Life): Her Cruelty Renders Life Worse Than Death to Him
- Sonnet XXV (In Death): His Poems Were Written Only to Soothe His Own Grief: Otherwise He Would Have Laboured to Make Them More Deserving of the Fame They Have Acquired
- Canzone VIII (In Death): To the Virgin Mary