Love

Sonnet XLVI (In Life): Imprecation Against the Laurel

by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) 1304–1374

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

Love

The graceful tree I loved so long and well,
Ere its fair boughs in scorn my flame declined,
Beneath its shade encouraged my poor mind
To bud and bloom, and 'mid its sorrow swell.
But now, my heart secure from such a spell,
Alas, from friendly it has grown unkind!
My thoughts entirely to one end confined,
Their painful sufferings how I still may tell.
What should he say, the sighing slave of love,
To whom my later rhymes gave hope of bliss,
Who for that laurel has lost all--but this?
May poet never pluck thee more, nor Jove
Exempt; but may the sun still hold in hate
On each green leaf till blight and blackness wait.

MLA

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet XLVI (In Life): Imprecation Against the Laurel.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/59/.

Chicago

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet XLVI (In Life): Imprecation Against the Laurel.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/59/.

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