Love

Sonnet XXXI (In Death): He Enumerates and Eulogises the Graces of Laura

by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) 1304–1374

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

Love

Where is the brow whose gentlest beckonings led
My raptured heart at will, now here, now there?
Where the twin stars, lights of this lower sphere,
Which o'er my darkling path their radiance shed?
Where is true worth, and wit, and wisdom fled?
The courteous phrase, the melting accent, where?
Where, group'd in one rich form, the beauties rare,
Which long their magic influence o'er me shed?
Where is the shade, within whose sweet recess
My wearied spirit still forgot its sighs,
And all my thoughts their constant record found?
Where, where is she, my life's sole arbitress?--
Ah, wretched world! and wretched ye, mine eyes
(Of her pure light bereft) which aye with tears are drown'd.

MLA

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet XXXI (In Death): He Enumerates and Eulogises the Graces of Laura.” Translated by Rev. Francis Wrangham. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/298/.

Chicago

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet XXXI (In Death): He Enumerates and Eulogises the Graces of Laura.” Translated by Rev. Francis Wrangham. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/298/.

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