Love
Sonnet LXXXIV (In Death): Weary of Life, Now That She is No Longer with Him, He Devotes Himself to God
Translated by Major Macgregor (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Death
Death has the bright sun quench'd which wont to burn;
Her pure and constant eyes his dark realms hold:
She now is dust, who dealt me heat and cold;
To common trees my chosen laurels turn;
Hence I at once my bliss and bane discern.
None now there is my feelings who can mould
From fire to frost, from timorous to bold,
In grief to languish or with hope to yearn.
Out of his tyrant hands who harms and heals,
Erewhile who made in it such havoc sore,
My heart the bitter-sweet of freedom feels.
And to the Lord whom, thankful, I adore,
The heavens who ruleth merely with his brow,
I turn life-weary, if not satiate, now.
Cite this poem
MLA
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet LXXXIV (In Death): Weary of Life, Now That She is No Longer with Him, He Devotes Himself to God.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/358/.
Chicago
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet LXXXIV (In Death): Weary of Life, Now That She is No Longer with Him, He Devotes Himself to God.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/358/.
Read this poem with the Codex →
More by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
- Sonnet XXXII (In Life): He Asks from a Friend the Loan of the Works of St. Augustin
- Sonnet XC (In Life): The Mere Sight of Vaucluse Makes Him Forget All the Perils of His Journey
- Sonnet CLIII (In Life): The Most Famous Poets of Antiquity Would Have Sung Her Only, Had They Seen Her
- Sonnet CCXXI (In Life): Thinking Always of Laura, It Pains Him to Remember Where She is Left
- Sonnet LX (In Death): He Prays That She Will Be Near Him at His Death, Which He Feels Approaching