Love
Sonnet LXVIII (In Death): Her Praises Are, Compared with Her Deserts, but as a Drop to the Ocean
Translated by Major Macgregor (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Death
So far as to mine eyes its light heaven show'd,
So far as love and study train'd my wings,
Novel and beautiful but mortal things
From every star I found on her bestow'd:
So many forms in rare and varied mode
Of heavenly beauty from immortal springs
My panting intellect before me brings,
Sunk my weak sight before their dazzling load.
Hence, whatsoe'er I spoke of her or wrote,
Who, at God's right, returns me now her prayers,
Is in that infinite abyss a mote:
For style beyond the genius never dares;
Thus, though upon the sun man fix his sight,
He seeth less as fiercer burns its light.
Cite this poem
MLA
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet LXVIII (In Death): Her Praises Are, Compared with Her Deserts, but as a Drop to the Ocean.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/340/.
Chicago
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet LXVIII (In Death): Her Praises Are, Compared with Her Deserts, but as a Drop to the Ocean.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/340/.
Read this poem with the Codex →
More by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
- Sonnet XVI (In Life): He Flies, but Passion Pursues Him
- Sonnet LXX (In Life): To His Brother Gerardo, on the Death of a Lady to Whom He Was Attached
- Sonnet CXXXII (In Life): Her Walk, Looks, Words, and Air
- Sestina VIII (In Life): She is Moved Neither by His Verses nor His Tears
- Sonnet XLIII (In Death): The Song of the Nightingale Reminds Him of His Unhappy Lot