Love
Sonnet XI (In Death): She is Ever Present to Him
Translated by Lady Dacre (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Death
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!"
Cite this poem
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/.
Read this poem with the Codex →
More by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
- Sestina III (In Life): He Compares Laura to Winter, and Foresees That She Will Always Be the Same
- Sonnet CVIII (In Life): Far from His Friends, He Flies to Them in Thought
- Sonnet CLXXVII (In Life): Though So Long Love's Faithful Servant, His Only Reward Has Been Tears
- Sonnet XX (In Death): Vaucluse Has Become to Him a Scene of Pain
- Sonnet LXXXVII (In Death): He Owes His Own Salvation to the Virtuous Conduct of Laura