Love

Sonnet L (In Death): Under the Allegory of a Laurel He Again Deplores Her Death

by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) 1304–1374

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

Love

As a fair plant, uprooted by oft blows
Of trenchant spade, or which the blast upheaves,
Scatters on earth its green and lofty leaves,
And its bare roots to the broad sunlight shows;
Love such another for my object chose,
Of whom for me the Muse a subject weaves,
Who in my captured heart her home achieves,
As on some wall or tree the ivy grows
That living laurel--where their chosen nest
My high thoughts made, where sigh'd mine ardent grief,
Yet never stirr'd of its fair boughs a leaf--
To heaven translated, in my heart, her rest,
Left deep its roots, whence ever with sad cry
I call on her, who ne'er vouchsafes reply.

MLA

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet L (In Death): Under the Allegory of a Laurel He Again Deplores Her Death.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/317/.

Chicago

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet L (In Death): Under the Allegory of a Laurel He Again Deplores Her Death.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/317/.

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