Love

Sonnet XXVI (In Death): Since Her Death, Nothing is Left to Him but Grief

by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) 1304–1374

Translated by Major Macgregor (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Death

Love

She stood within my heart, warm, young, alone,
As in a humble home a lady bright;
By her last flight not merely am I grown
Mortal, but dead, and she an angel quite.
A soul whence every bliss and hope is flown,
Love shorn and naked of its own glad light,
Might melt with pity e'en a heart of stone:
But none there is to tell their grief or write;
These plead within, where deaf is every ear
Except mine own, whose power its griefs so mar
That nought is left me save to suffer here.
Verily we but dust and shadows are!
Verily blind and evil is our will!
Verily human hopes deceive us still!

MLA

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet XXVI (In Death): Since Her Death, Nothing is Left to Him but Grief.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/293/.

Chicago

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet XXVI (In Death): Since Her Death, Nothing is Left to Him but Grief.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/293/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

More by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)