Love

Sonnet XXX (In Death): The Remembrance of the Past Enhances His Misery

by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) 1304–1374

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

Love

When I look back upon the many years
Which in their flight my best thoughts have entomb'd,
And spent the fire, that, spite her ice, consumed,
And finish'd the repose so full of tears,
Broken the faith which Love's young dream endears,
And the two parts of all my blessing doom'd,
This low in earth, while heaven has that resumed,
And lost the guerdon of my pains and fears,
I wake, and feel me to the bitter wind
So bare, I envy the worst lot I see;
Self-terror and heart-grief on me so wait.
O Death, O Fate, O Fortune, stars unkind!
O day for ever dark and drear to me!
How have ye sunk me in this abject state!

MLA

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet XXX (In Death): The Remembrance of the Past Enhances His Misery.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/297/.

Chicago

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet XXX (In Death): The Remembrance of the Past Enhances His Misery.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/297/.

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