Love
Sonnet XVI (In Death): The Remembrance of Her Chases Sadness from His Heart
Translated by Major Macgregor (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Death
So brief the time, so fugitive the thought
Which Laura yields to me, though dead, again,
Small medicine give they to my giant pain;
Still, as I look on her, afflicts me nought.
Love, on the rack who holds me as he brought,
Fears when he sees her thus my soul retain,
Where still the seraph face and sweet voice reign,
Which first his tyranny and triumph wrought.
As rules a mistress in her home of right,
From my dark heavy heart her placid brow
Dispels each anxious thought and omen drear.
My soul, which bears but ill such dazzling light,
Says with a sigh: "O blessed day! when thou
Didst ope with those dear eyes thy passage here!"
Cite this poem
MLA
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet XVI (In Death): The Remembrance of Her Chases Sadness from His Heart.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/283/.
Chicago
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet XVI (In Death): The Remembrance of Her Chases Sadness from His Heart.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/283/.
Read this poem with the Codex →
More by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
- Sonnet XLVI (In Life): Imprecation Against the Laurel
- Sonnet CIII (In Life): Love's Armoury
- Canzone XIX (In Life): He Vehemently Rebuts the Charge of Loving Another
- Sonnet XI (In Death): She is Ever Present to Him
- Canzone VI (In Death): She Appears to Him, and, with More Than Wonted Affection, Endeavours to Console Him