Love

Sonnet LXXXIX (In Death): He Begs Love to Assist Him, That He May Worthily Celebrate Her

by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) 1304–1374

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

Love

Ah, Love! some succour to my weak mind deign,
Lend to my frail and weary style thine aid,
To sing of her who is immortal made,
A citizen of the celestial reign.
And grant, Lord, that my verse the height may gain
Of her great praises, else in vain essay'd,
Whose peer in worth or beauty never stay'd
In this our world, unworthy to retain.
Love answers: "In myself and Heaven what lay,
By conversation pure and counsel wise,
All was in her whom death has snatch'd away.
Since the first morn when Adam oped his eyes,
Like form was ne'er--suffice it this to say,
Write down with tears what scarce I tell for sighs."

MLA

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet LXXXIX (In Death): He Begs Love to Assist Him, That He May Worthily Celebrate Her.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/363/.

Chicago

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet LXXXIX (In Death): He Begs Love to Assist Him, That He May Worthily Celebrate Her.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/363/.

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