Love
Sonnet XXXIV (In Death): Soaring in Imagination to Heaven, He Meets Laura, and is Happy
Translated by Rev. Francis Wrangham (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Death
Fond fancy raised me to the spot, where strays
She, whom I seek but find on earth no more:
There, fairer still and humbler than before,
I saw her, in the third heaven's blessèd maze.
She took me by the hand, and "Thou shalt trace,
If hope not errs," she said, "this happy shore:
I, I am she, thy breast with slights who tore,
And ere its evening closed my day's brief space.
What human heart conceives, my joys exceed;
Thee only I expect, and (what remain
Below) the charms, once objects of thy love."
Why ceased she? Ah! my captive hand why freed?
Such of her soft and hallow'd tones the chain,
From that delightful heaven my soul could scarcely move.
Cite this poem
MLA
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet XXXIV (In Death): Soaring in Imagination to Heaven, He Meets Laura, and is Happy.” Translated by Rev. Francis Wrangham. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/301/.
Chicago
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet XXXIV (In Death): Soaring in Imagination to Heaven, He Meets Laura, and is Happy.” Translated by Rev. Francis Wrangham. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/301/.
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More by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
- Sonnet VIII (In Life): He Feigns an Address from Some Birds Which He Had Presented
- Sonnet LX (In Life): He Confesses His Errors, and Throws Himself on the Mercy of God
- Sonnet CXXI (In Life): Laura's Unparalleled Beauty and Virtue
- Sonnet CXCII (In Life): Under the Figure of a Laurel, He Relates the Growth of His Love
- Sonnet XXXVI (In Death): Had She Not Died So Early, He Would Have Learned to Praise Her More Worthily