Love
Sonnet LXII (In Death): Beauty Showed Itself in, and Disappeared with, Laura
Translated by Major Macgregor (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Death
'Mid many fair one such by me was seen
That amorous fears my heart did instant seize,
Beholding her--nor false the images--
Equal to angels in her heavenly mien.
Nothing in her was mortal or terrene,
As one whom nothing short of heaven can please;
My soul well train'd for her to burn and freeze
Sought in her wake to mount the blue serene.
But ah! too high for earthly wings to rise
Her pitch, and soon she wholly pass'd from sight:
The very thought still makes me cold and numb;
O beautiful and high and lustrous eyes,
Where Death, who fills the world with grief and fright,
Found entrance in so fair a form to come.
Cite this poem
MLA
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet LXII (In Death): Beauty Showed Itself in, and Disappeared with, Laura.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/334/.
Chicago
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet LXII (In Death): Beauty Showed Itself in, and Disappeared with, Laura.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/334/.
Read this poem with the Codex →
More by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
- Ballata I (In Life): Perceiving His Passion, Laura's Severity Increases
- Sonnet LXIII (In Life): Dialogue Between the Poet and His Eyes
- Sonnet CXXIV (In Life): He Recalls Her as He Saw Her When in Tears
- Sonnet CXCV (In Life): He Fears That an Illness Which Has Attacked the Eyes of Laura May Deprive Him of Their Sight
- Sonnet XXXVI (In Death): Had She Not Died So Early, He Would Have Learned to Praise Her More Worthily