Love

Sonnet XXXIV (In Life): Her Return Gladdens the Earth and Calms the Sky

by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) 1304–1374

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

Love

But when her sweet smile, modest and benign,
No longer hides from us its beauties rare,
At the spent forge his stout and sinewy arms
Plieth that old Sicilian smith in vain,
For from the hands of Jove his bolts are taken
Temper'd in Ætna to extremest proof;
And his cold sister by degrees grows calm
And genial in Apollo's kindling beams.
Moves from the rosy west a summer breath,
Which safe and easy wafts the seaward bark,
And wakes the sweet flowers in each grassy mead.
Malignant stars on every side depart,
Dispersed before that bright enchanting face,
For which already many tears are shed.

MLA

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet XXXIV (In Life): Her Return Gladdens the Earth and Calms the Sky.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/41/.

Chicago

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet XXXIV (In Life): Her Return Gladdens the Earth and Calms the Sky.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/41/.

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