Love
Sonnet LXXXIX (In Death): He Begs Love to Assist Him, That He May Worthily Celebrate Her
Translated by Major Macgregor (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Death
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."
Cite this poem
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/.
Read this poem with the Codex →
More by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
- Sonnet XXVII (In Life): He Compares Her to a Laurel, Which He Supplicates Apollo to Defend
- Sonnet LXXXIV (In Life): After Fifteen Years Her Eyes Are More Powerful Than at First
- Sonnet CXLVII (In Life): To the River Po, on Quitting Laura
- Sonnet CCXV (In Life): He Sighs for Those Glances from Which, to His Grief, Fortune Ever Delights to Withdraw Him
- Sonnet LV (In Death): Death May Deprive Him of the Sight of Her Beauties, but Not of the Memory of Her Virtues