Love
Sonnet VIII (In Death): With Her, His Only Solace, is Taken Away All His Desire of Life
Translated by Major Macgregor (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Death
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?
Cite this poem
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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More by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
- Sonnet XXII (In Life): On the Same Subject
- Sonnet LXXVIII (In Life): To a Friend, Counselling Him to Abandon Earthly Pleasures
- Sonnet CXXXIX (In Life): Envy May Disturb, but Cannot Destroy His Hope
- Sonnet CCVII (In Life): The Two Roses
- Sonnet LIII (In Death): The Sight of Laura's House Reminds Him of His Misery