Love

Sonnet XI (In Death): She is Ever Present to Him

by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) 1304–1374

Translated by Lady Dacre (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Death

Love

If the lorn bird complain, or rustling sweep
Soft summer airs o'er foliage waving slow,
Or the hoarse brook come murmuring down the steep,
Where on the enamell'd bank I sit below
With thoughts of love that bid my numbers flow;
'Tis then I see her, though in earth she sleep!
Her, form'd in heaven! I see, and hear, and know!
Responsive sighing, weeping as I weep:
"Alas," she pitying says, "ere yet the hour,
Why hurry life away with swifter flight?
Why from thy eyes this flood of sorrow pour?
No longer mourn my fate! through death my days
Become eternal! to eternal light
These eyes, which seem'd in darkness closed, I raise!"

MLA

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet XI (In Death): She is Ever Present to Him.” Translated by Lady Dacre. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/278/.

Chicago

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet XI (In Death): She is Ever Present to Him.” Translated by Lady Dacre. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/278/.

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