Love

Sonnet VIII (In Death): With Her, His Only Solace, is Taken Away All His Desire of Life

by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) 1304–1374

Translated by Major Macgregor (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Death

Love

Since her calm angel face, long beauty's fane,
My beggar'd soul by this brief parting throws
In darkest horrors and in deepest woes,
I seek by uttering to allay my pain.
Certes, just sorrow leads me to complain:
This she, who is its cause, and Love too shows;
No other remedy my poor heart knows
Against the troubles that in life obtain.
Death! thou hast snatch'd her hence with hand unkind,
And thou, glad Earth! that fair and kindly face
Now hidest from me in thy close embrace;
Why leave me here, disconsolate and blind,
Since she who of mine eyes the light has been,
Sweet, loving, bright, no more with me is seen?

MLA

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet VIII (In Death): With Her, His Only Solace, is Taken Away All His Desire of Life.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/275/.

Chicago

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet VIII (In Death): With Her, His Only Solace, is Taken Away All His Desire of Life.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/275/.

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