Love

Sonnet XIV (In Death): He Thanks Her That from Time to Time She Returns to Console Him with Her Presence

by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) 1304–1374

Translated by Rev. Francis Wrangham (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Death

Love

O blessed spirit! who dost oft return,
Ministering comfort to my nights of woe,
From eyes which Death, relenting in his blow,
Has lit with all the lustres of the morn:
How am I gladden'd, that thou dost not scorn
O'er my dark days thy radiant beam to throw!
Thus do I seem again to trace below
Thy beauties, hovering o'er their loved sojourn.
There now, thou seest, where long of thee had been
My sprightlier strain, of thee my plaint I swell--
Of thee!--oh, no! of mine own sorrows keen.
One only solace cheers the wretched scene:
By many a sign I know thy coming well--
Thy step, thy voice and look, and robe of favour'd green.

MLA

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet XIV (In Death): He Thanks Her That from Time to Time She Returns to Console Him with Her Presence.” Translated by Rev. Francis Wrangham. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/281/.

Chicago

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet XIV (In Death): He Thanks Her That from Time to Time She Returns to Console Him with Her Presence.” Translated by Rev. Francis Wrangham. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/281/.

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