The Divine Comedy - 15

Bearing a sword, whose glitterance and keen edge,
E’en as I view’d it with the flood between,
Appall’d me. Next four others I beheld,
Of humble seeming: and, behind them all,
One single old man, sleeping, as he came,
With a shrewd visage. And these seven, each
Like the first troop were habited, but wore
No braid of lilies on their temples wreath’d.
Rather with roses and each vermeil flower,
A sight, but little distant, might have sworn,
That they were all on fire above their brow.
Whenas the car was o’er against me, straight.
Was heard a thund’ring, at whose voice it seem’d
The chosen multitude were stay’d; for there,
With the first ensigns, made they solemn halt.


CANTO XXX

Soon as the polar light, which never knows
Setting nor rising, nor the shadowy veil
Of other cloud than sin, fair ornament
Of the first heav’n, to duty each one there
Safely convoying, as that lower doth
The steersman to his port, stood firmly fix’d;
Forthwith the saintly tribe, who in the van
Between the Gryphon and its radiance came,
Did turn them to the car, as to their rest:
And one, as if commission’d from above,
In holy chant thrice shorted forth aloud:
“Come, spouse, from Libanus!” and all the rest
Took up the song—At the last audit so
The blest shall rise, from forth his cavern each
Uplifting lightly his new-vested flesh,
As, on the sacred litter, at the voice
Authoritative of that elder, sprang
A hundred ministers and messengers
Of life eternal. “Blessed thou! who com’st!”
And, “O,” they cried, “from full hands scatter ye
Unwith’ring lilies;” and, so saying, cast
Flowers over head and round them on all sides.
I have beheld, ere now, at break of day,
The eastern clime all roseate, and the sky
Oppos’d, one deep and beautiful serene,
And the sun’s face so shaded, and with mists
Attemper’d at lids rising, that the eye
Long while endur’d the sight: thus in a cloud
Of flowers, that from those hands angelic rose,
And down, within and outside of the car,
Fell showering, in white veil with olive wreath’d,
A virgin in my view appear’d, beneath
Green mantle, rob’d in hue of living flame:
And o’er my Spirit, that in former days
Within her presence had abode so long,
No shudd’ring terror crept. Mine eyes no more
Had knowledge of her; yet there mov’d from her
A hidden virtue, at whose touch awak’d,
The power of ancient love was strong within me.
No sooner on my vision streaming, smote
The heav’nly influence, which years past, and e’en
In childhood, thrill’d me, than towards Virgil I
Turn’d me to leftward, panting, like a babe,
That flees for refuge to his mother’s breast,
If aught have terrified or work’d him woe:
And would have cried: “There is no dram of blood,
That doth not quiver in me. The old flame
Throws out clear tokens of reviving fire:”
But Virgil had bereav’d us of himself,
Virgil, my best-lov’d father; Virgil, he
To whom I gave me up for safety: nor,
All, our prime mother lost, avail’d to save
My undew’d cheeks from blur of soiling tears.
“Dante, weep not, that Virgil leaves thee: nay,
Weep thou not yet: behooves thee feel the edge
Of other sword, and thou shalt weep for that.”
As to the prow or stern, some admiral
Paces the deck, inspiriting his crew,
When ’mid the sail-yards all hands ply aloof;
Thus on the left side of the car I saw,
(Turning me at the sound of mine own name,
Which here I am compell’d to register)
The virgin station’d, who before appeared
Veil’d in that festive shower angelical.
Towards me, across the stream, she bent her eyes;
Though from her brow the veil descending, bound
With foliage of Minerva, suffer’d not
That I beheld her clearly; then with act
Full royal, still insulting o’er her thrall,
Added, as one, who speaking keepeth back
The bitterest saying, to conclude the speech:
“Observe me well. I am, in sooth, I am
Beatrice. What! and hast thou deign’d at last
Approach the mountain? knewest not, O man!
Thy happiness is whole?” Down fell mine eyes
On the clear fount, but there, myself espying,
Recoil’d, and sought the greensward: such a weight
Of shame was on my forehead. With a mien
Of that stern majesty, which doth surround
mother’s presence to her awe-struck child,
She look’d; a flavour of such bitterness
Was mingled in her pity. There her words
Brake off, and suddenly the angels sang:
“In thee, O gracious Lord, my hope hath been:”
But went no farther than, “Thou Lord, hast set
My feet in ample room.” As snow, that lies
Amidst the living rafters on the back
Of Italy congeal’d when drifted high
And closely pil’d by rough Sclavonian blasts,
Breathe but the land whereon no shadow falls,
And straightway melting it distils away,
Like a fire-wasted taper: thus was I,
Without a sigh or tear, or ever these
Did sing, that with the chiming of heav’n’s sphere,
Still in their warbling chime: but when the strain
Of dulcet symphony, express’d for me
Their soft compassion, more than could the words
“Virgin, why so consum’st him?” then the ice,
Congeal’d about my bosom, turn’d itself
To spirit and water, and with anguish forth
Gush’d through the lips and eyelids from the heart.
Upon the chariot’s right edge still she stood,
Immovable, and thus address’d her words
To those bright semblances with pity touch’d:
“Ye in th’ eternal day your vigils keep,
So that nor night nor slumber, with close stealth,
Conveys from you a single step in all
The goings on of life: thence with more heed
I shape mine answer, for his ear intended,
Who there stands weeping, that the sorrow now
May equal the transgression. Not alone
Through operation of the mighty orbs,
That mark each seed to some predestin’d aim,
As with aspect or fortunate or ill
The constellations meet, but through benign
Largess of heav’nly graces, which rain down
From such a height, as mocks our vision, this man
Was in the freshness of his being, such,
So gifted virtually, that in him
All better habits wond’rously had thriv’d.
The more of kindly strength is in the soil,
So much doth evil seed and lack of culture
Mar it the more, and make it run to wildness.
These looks sometime upheld him; for I show’d
My youthful eyes, and led him by their light
In upright walking. Soon as I had reach’d
The threshold of my second age, and chang’d
My mortal for immortal, then he left me,
And gave himself to others. When from flesh
To spirit I had risen, and increase
Of beauty and of virtue circled me,
I was less dear to him, and valued less.
His steps were turn’d into deceitful ways,
Following false images of good, that make
No promise perfect. Nor avail’d me aught
To sue for inspirations, with the which,
I, both in dreams of night, and otherwise,
Did call him back; of them so little reck’d him,
Such depth he fell, that all device was short
Of his preserving, save that he should view
The children of perdition. To this end
I visited the purlieus of the dead:
And one, who hath conducted him thus high,
Receiv’d my supplications urg’d with weeping.
It were a breaking of God’s high decree,
If Lethe should be past, and such food tasted
Without the cost of some repentant tear.”


CANTO XXXI

“O Thou!” her words she thus without delay
Resuming, turn’d their point on me, to whom
They but with lateral edge seem’d harsh before,
“Say thou, who stand’st beyond the holy stream,
If this be true. A charge so grievous needs
Thine own avowal.” On my faculty
Such strange amazement hung, the voice expir’d
Imperfect, ere its organs gave it birth.
A little space refraining, then she spake:
“What dost thou muse on? Answer me. The wave
On thy remembrances of evil yet
Hath done no injury.” A mingled sense
Of fear and of confusion, from my lips
Did such a “Yea” produce, as needed help
Of vision to interpret. As when breaks
In act to be discharg’d, a cross-bow bent
Beyond its pitch, both nerve and bow o’erstretch’d,
The flagging weapon feebly hits the mark;
Thus, tears and sighs forth gushing, did I burst
Beneath the heavy load, and thus my voice
Was slacken’d on its way. She straight began:
“When my desire invited thee to love
The good, which sets a bound to our aspirings,
What bar of thwarting foss or linked chain
Did meet thee, that thou so should’st quit the hope
Of further progress, or what bait of ease
Or promise of allurement led thee on
Elsewhere, that thou elsewhere should’st rather wait?”
A bitter sigh I drew, then scarce found voice
To answer, hardly to these sounds my lips
Gave utterance, wailing: “Thy fair looks withdrawn,
Things present, with deceitful pleasures, turn’d
My steps aside.” She answering spake: “Hadst thou
Been silent, or denied what thou avow’st,
Thou hadst not hid thy sin the more: such eye
Observes it. But whene’er the sinner’s cheek
Breaks forth into the precious-streaming tears
Of self-accusing, in our court the wheel
Of justice doth run counter to the edge.
Howe’er that thou may’st profit by thy shame
For errors past, and that henceforth more strength
May arm thee, when thou hear’st the Siren-voice,
Lay thou aside the motive to this grief,
And lend attentive ear, while I unfold
How opposite a way my buried flesh
Should have impell’d thee. Never didst thou spy
In art or nature aught so passing sweet,
As were the limbs, that in their beauteous frame
Enclos’d me, and are scatter’d now in dust.
If sweetest thing thus fail’d thee with my death,
What, afterward, of mortal should thy wish
Have tempted? When thou first hadst felt the dart
Of perishable things, in my departing
For better realms, thy wing thou should’st have prun’d
To follow me, and never stoop’d again
To ’bide a second blow for a slight girl,
Or other gaud as transient and as vain.
The new and inexperienc’d bird awaits,
Twice it may be, or thrice, the fowler’s aim;
But in the sight of one, whose plumes are full,
In vain the net is spread, the arrow wing’d.”
I stood, as children silent and asham’d
Stand, list’ning, with their eyes upon the earth,
Acknowledging their fault and self-condemn’d.
And she resum’d: “If, but to hear thus pains thee,
Raise thou thy beard, and lo! what sight shall do!”
With less reluctance yields a sturdy holm,
Rent from its fibers by a blast, that blows
From off the pole, or from Iarbas’ land,
Than I at her behest my visage rais’d:
And thus the face denoting by the beard,
I mark’d the secret sting her words convey’d.
No sooner lifted I mine aspect up,
Than downward sunk that vision I beheld
Of goodly creatures vanish; and mine eyes
Yet unassur’d and wavering, bent their light
On Beatrice. Towards the animal,
Who joins two natures in one form, she turn’d,
And, even under shadow of her veil,
And parted by the verdant rill, that flow’d
Between, in loveliness appear’d as much
Her former self surpassing, as on earth
All others she surpass’d. Remorseful goads
Shot sudden through me. Each thing else, the more
Its love had late beguil’d me, now the more
I Was loathsome. On my heart so keenly smote
The bitter consciousness, that on the ground
O’erpower’d I fell: and what my state was then,
She knows who was the cause. When now my strength
Flow’d back, returning outward from the heart,
The lady, whom alone I first had seen,
I found above me. “Loose me not,” she cried:
“Loose not thy hold;” and lo! had dragg’d me high
As to my neck into the stream, while she,
Still as she drew me after, swept along,
Swift as a shuttle, bounding o’er the wave.
The blessed shore approaching then was heard
So sweetly, “Tu asperges me,” that I
May not remember, much less tell the sound.
The beauteous dame, her arms expanding, clasp’d
My temples, and immerg’d me, where ’t was fit
The wave should drench me: and thence raising up,
Within the fourfold dance of lovely nymphs
Presented me so lav’d, and with their arm
They each did cover me. “Here are we nymphs,
And in the heav’n are stars. Or ever earth
Was visited of Beatrice, we
Appointed for her handmaids, tended on her.
We to her eyes will lead thee; but the light
Of gladness that is in them, well to scan,
Those yonder three, of deeper ken than ours,
Thy sight shall quicken.” Thus began their song;
And then they led me to the Gryphon’s breast,
While, turn’d toward us, Beatrice stood.
“Spare not thy vision. We have stationed thee
Before the emeralds, whence love erewhile
Hath drawn his weapons on thee.” As they spake,
A thousand fervent wishes riveted
Mine eyes upon her beaming eyes, that stood
Still fix’d toward the Gryphon motionless.
As the sun strikes a mirror, even thus
Within those orbs the twofold being, shone,
For ever varying, in one figure now
Reflected, now in other. Reader! muse
How wond’rous in my sight it seem’d to mark
A thing, albeit steadfast in itself,
Yet in its imag’d semblance mutable.
Full of amaze, and joyous, while my soul
Fed on the viand, whereof still desire
Grows with satiety, the other three
With gesture, that declar’d a loftier line,
Advanc’d: to their own carol on they came
Dancing in festive ring angelical.
“Turn, Beatrice!” was their song: “O turn
Thy saintly sight on this thy faithful one,
Who to behold thee many a wearisome pace
Hath measur’d. Gracious at our pray’r vouchsafe
Unveil to him thy cheeks: that he may mark
Thy second beauty, now conceal’d.” O splendour!
O sacred light eternal! who is he
So pale with musing in Pierian shades,
Or with that fount so lavishly imbued,
Whose spirit should not fail him in th’ essay
To represent thee such as thou didst seem,
When under cope of the still-chiming heaven
Thou gav’st to open air thy charms reveal’d.


CANTO XXXII

Mine eyes with such an eager coveting,
Were bent to rid them of their ten years’ thirst,
No other sense was waking: and e’en they
Were fenc’d on either side from heed of aught;
So tangled in its custom’d toils that smile
Of saintly brightness drew me to itself,
When forcibly toward the left my sight
The sacred virgins turn’d; for from their lips
I heard the warning sounds: “Too fix’d a gaze!”
Awhile my vision labor’d; as when late
Upon the’ o’erstrained eyes the sun hath smote:
But soon to lesser object, as the view
Was now recover’d (lesser in respect
To that excess of sensible, whence late
I had perforce been sunder’d) on their right
I mark’d that glorious army wheel, and turn,
Against the sun and sev’nfold lights, their front.
As when, their bucklers for protection rais’d,
A well-rang’d troop, with portly banners curl’d,
Wheel circling, ere the whole can change their ground:
E’en thus the goodly regiment of heav’n
Proceeding, all did pass us, ere the car
Had slop’d his beam. Attendant at the wheels
The damsels turn’d; and on the Gryphon mov’d
The sacred burden, with a pace so smooth,
No feather on him trembled. The fair dame
Who through the wave had drawn me, companied
By Statius and myself, pursued the wheel,
Whose orbit, rolling, mark’d a lesser arch.
Through the high wood, now void (the more her blame,
Who by the serpent was beguil’d) I past
With step in cadence to the harmony
Angelic. Onward had we mov’d, as far
Perchance as arrow at three several flights
Full wing’d had sped, when from her station down
Descended Beatrice. With one voice
All murmur’d “Adam,” circling next a plant
Despoil’d of flowers and leaf on every bough.
Its tresses, spreading more as more they rose,
Were such, as ’midst their forest wilds for height
The Indians might have gaz’d at. “Blessed thou!
Gryphon, whose beak hath never pluck’d that tree
Pleasant to taste: for hence the appetite
Was warp’d to evil.” Round the stately trunk
Thus shouted forth the rest, to whom return’d
The animal twice-gender’d: “Yea: for so
The generation of the just are sav’d.”
And turning to the chariot-pole, to foot
He drew it of the widow’d branch, and bound
There left unto the stock whereon it grew.
As when large floods of radiance from above
Stream, with that radiance mingled, which ascends
Next after setting of the scaly sign,
Our plants then burgeon, and each wears anew
His wonted colours, ere the sun have yok’d
Beneath another star his flamy steeds;
Thus putting forth a hue, more faint than rose,
And deeper than the violet, was renew’d
The plant, erewhile in all its branches bare.
Unearthly was the hymn, which then arose.
I understood it not, nor to the end
Endur’d the harmony. Had I the skill
To pencil forth, how clos’d th’ unpitying eyes
Slumb’ring, when Syrinx warbled, (eyes that paid
So dearly for their watching,) then like painter,
That with a model paints, I might design
The manner of my falling into sleep.
But feign who will the slumber cunningly;
I pass it by to when I wak’d, and tell
How suddenly a flash of splendour rent
The curtain of my sleep, and one cries out:
“Arise, what dost thou?” As the chosen three,
On Tabor’s mount, admitted to behold
The blossoming of that fair tree, whose fruit
Is coveted of angels, and doth make
Perpetual feast in heaven, to themselves
Returning at the word, whence deeper sleeps
Were broken, that they their tribe diminish’d saw,
Both Moses and Elias gone, and chang’d
The stole their master wore: thus to myself
Returning, over me beheld I stand
The piteous one, who cross the stream had brought
My steps. “And where,” all doubting, I exclaim’d,
“Is Beatrice?”—“See her,” she replied,
“Beneath the fresh leaf seated on its root.
Behold th’ associate choir that circles her.
The others, with a melody more sweet
And more profound, journeying to higher realms,
Upon the Gryphon tend.” If there her words
Were clos’d, I know not; but mine eyes had now
Ta’en view of her, by whom all other thoughts
Were barr’d admittance. On the very ground
Alone she sat, as she had there been left
A guard upon the wain, which I beheld
Bound to the twyform beast. The seven nymphs
Did make themselves a cloister round about her,
And in their hands upheld those lights secure
From blast septentrion and the gusty south.
“A little while thou shalt be forester here:
And citizen shalt be forever with me,
Of that true Rome, wherein Christ dwells a Roman
To profit the misguided world, keep now
Thine eyes upon the car; and what thou seest,
Take heed thou write, returning to that place.”
Thus Beatrice: at whose feet inclin’d
Devout, at her behest, my thought and eyes,
I, as she bade, directed. Never fire,
With so swift motion, forth a stormy cloud
Leap’d downward from the welkin’s farthest bound,
As I beheld the bird of Jove descending
Pounce on the tree, and, as he rush’d, the rind,
Disparting crush beneath him, buds much more
And leaflets. On the car with all his might
He struck, whence, staggering like a ship, it reel’d,
At random driv’n, to starboard now, o’ercome,
And now to larboard, by the vaulting waves.
Next springing up into the chariot’s womb
A fox I saw, with hunger seeming pin’d
Of all good food. But, for his ugly sins
The saintly maid rebuking him, away
Scamp’ring he turn’d, fast as his hide-bound corpse
Would bear him. Next, from whence before he came,
I saw the eagle dart into the hull
O’ th’ car, and leave it with his feathers lin’d;
And then a voice, like that which issues forth
From heart with sorrow riv’d, did issue forth
From heav’n, and, “O poor bark of mine!” it cried,
“How badly art thou freighted!” Then, it seem’d,
That the earth open’d between either wheel,
And I beheld a dragon issue thence,
That through the chariot fix’d his forked train;
And like a wasp that draggeth back the sting,
So drawing forth his baleful train, he dragg’d
Part of the bottom forth, and went his way
Exulting. What remain’d, as lively turf
With green herb, so did clothe itself with plumes,
Which haply had with purpose chaste and kind
Been offer’d; and therewith were cloth’d the wheels,
Both one and other, and the beam, so quickly
A sigh were not breath’d sooner. Thus transform’d,
The holy structure, through its several parts,
Did put forth heads, three on the beam, and one
On every side; the first like oxen horn’d,
But with a single horn upon their front
The four. Like monster sight hath never seen.
O’er it methought there sat, secure as rock
On mountain’s lofty top, a shameless whore,
Whose ken rov’d loosely round her. At her side,
As ’t were that none might bear her off, I saw
A giant stand; and ever, and anon
They mingled kisses. But, her lustful eyes
Chancing on me to wander, that fell minion
Scourg’d her from head to foot all o’er; then full
Of jealousy, and fierce with rage, unloos’d
The monster, and dragg’d on, so far across
The forest, that from me its shades alone
Shielded the harlot and the new-form’d brute.


CANTO XXXIII

“The heathen, Lord! are come!” responsive thus,
The trinal now, and now the virgin band
Quaternion, their sweet psalmody began,
Weeping; and Beatrice listen’d, sad
And sighing, to the song’, in such a mood,
That Mary, as she stood beside the cross,
Was scarce more chang’d. But when they gave her place
To speak, then, risen upright on her feet,
She, with a colour glowing bright as fire,
Did answer: “Yet a little while, and ye
Shall see me not; and, my beloved sisters,
Again a little while, and ye shall see me.”
Before her then she marshall’d all the seven,
And, beck’ning only motion’d me, the dame,
And that remaining sage, to follow her.
So on she pass’d; and had not set, I ween,
Her tenth step to the ground, when with mine eyes
Her eyes encounter’d; and, with visage mild,
“So mend thy pace,” she cried, “that if my words
Address thee, thou mayst still be aptly plac’d
To hear them.” Soon as duly to her side
I now had hasten’d: “Brother!” she began,
“Why mak’st thou no attempt at questioning,
As thus we walk together?” Like to those
Who, speaking with too reverent an awe
Before their betters, draw not forth the voice
Alive unto their lips, befell me shell
That I in sounds imperfect thus began:
“Lady! what I have need of, that thou know’st,
And what will suit my need.” She answering thus:
“Of fearfulness and shame, I will, that thou
Henceforth do rid thee: that thou speak no more,
As one who dreams. Thus far be taught of me:
The vessel, which thou saw’st the serpent break,
Was and is not: let him, who hath the blame,
Hope not to scare God’s vengeance with a sop.
Without an heir for ever shall not be
That eagle, he, who left the chariot plum’d,
Which monster made it first and next a prey.
Plainly I view, and therefore speak, the stars
E’en now approaching, whose conjunction, free
From all impediment and bar, brings on
A season, in the which, one sent from God,
(Five hundred, five, and ten, do mark him out)
That foul one, and th’ accomplice of her guilt,
The giant, both shall slay. And if perchance
My saying, dark as Themis or as Sphinx,
Fail to persuade thee, (since like them it foils
The intellect with blindness) yet ere long
Events shall be the Naiads, that will solve
This knotty riddle, and no damage light
On flock or field. Take heed; and as these words
By me are utter’d, teach them even so
To those who live that life, which is a race
To death: and when thou writ’st them, keep in mind
Not to conceal how thou hast seen the plant,
That twice hath now been spoil’d. This whoso robs,
This whoso plucks, with blasphemy of deed
Sins against God, who for his use alone
Creating hallow’d it. For taste of this,
In pain and in desire, five thousand years
And upward, the first soul did yearn for him,
Who punish’d in himself the fatal gust.
“Thy reason slumbers, if it deem this height
And summit thus inverted of the plant,
Without due cause: and were not vainer thoughts,
As Elsa’s numbing waters, to thy soul,
And their fond pleasures had not dyed it dark
As Pyramus the mulberry, thou hadst seen,
In such momentous circumstance alone,
God’s equal justice morally implied
In the forbidden tree. But since I mark thee
In understanding harden’d into stone,
And, to that hardness, spotted too and stain’d,
So that thine eye is dazzled at my word,
I will, that, if not written, yet at least
Painted thou take it in thee, for the cause,
That one brings home his staff inwreath’d with palm.
I thus: “As wax by seal, that changeth not
Its impress, now is stamp’d my brain by thee.
But wherefore soars thy wish’d-for speech so high
Beyond my sight, that loses it the more,
The more it strains to reach it?”—“To the end
That thou mayst know,” she answer’d straight, “the school,
That thou hast follow’d; and how far behind,
When following my discourse, its learning halts:
And mayst behold your art, from the divine
As distant, as the disagreement is
’Twixt earth and heaven’s most high and rapturous orb.”
“I not remember,” I replied, “that e’er
I was estrang’d from thee, nor for such fault
Doth conscience chide me.” Smiling she return’d:
“If thou canst, not remember, call to mind
How lately thou hast drunk of Lethe’s wave;
And, sure as smoke doth indicate a flame,
In that forgetfulness itself conclude
Blame from thy alienated will incurr’d.
From henceforth verily my words shall be
As naked as will suit them to appear
In thy unpractis’d view.” More sparkling now,
And with retarded course the sun possess’d
The circle of mid-day, that varies still
As th’ aspect varies of each several clime,
When, as one, sent in vaward of a troop
For escort, pauses, if perchance he spy
Vestige of somewhat strange and rare: so paus’d
The sev’nfold band, arriving at the verge
Of a dun umbrage hoar, such as is seen,
Beneath green leaves and gloomy branches, oft
To overbrow a bleak and alpine cliff.
And, where they stood, before them, as it seem’d,
Tigris and Euphrates both beheld,
Forth from one fountain issue; and, like friends,
Linger at parting. “O enlight’ning beam!
O glory of our kind! beseech thee say
What water this, which from one source deriv’d
Itself removes to distance from itself?”
To such entreaty answer thus was made:
“Entreat Matilda, that she teach thee this.”
And here, as one, who clears himself of blame
Imputed, the fair dame return’d: “Of me
He this and more hath learnt; and I am safe
That Lethe’s water hath not hid it from him.”
And Beatrice: “Some more pressing care
That oft the memory ’reeves, perchance hath made
His mind’s eye dark. But lo! where Eunoe cows!
Lead thither; and, as thou art wont, revive
His fainting virtue.” As a courteous spirit,
That proffers no excuses, but as soon
As he hath token of another’s will,
Makes it his own; when she had ta’en me, thus
The lovely maiden mov’d her on, and call’d
To Statius with an air most lady-like:
“Come thou with him.” Were further space allow’d,
Then, Reader, might I sing, though but in part,
That beverage, with whose sweetness I had ne’er
Been sated. But, since all the leaves are full,
Appointed for this second strain, mine art
With warning bridle checks me. I return’d
From the most holy wave, regenerate,
If ’en as new plants renew’d with foliage new,
Pure and made apt for mounting to the stars.


PARADISE


CANTO I

His glory, by whose might all things are mov’d,
Pierces the universe, and in one part
Sheds more resplendence, elsewhere less. In heav’n,
That largeliest of his light partakes, was I,
Witness of things, which to relate again
Surpasseth power of him who comes from thence;
For that, so near approaching its desire
Our intellect is to such depth absorb’d,
That memory cannot follow. Nathless all,
That in my thoughts I of that sacred realm
Could store, shall now be matter of my song.
Benign Apollo! this last labour aid,
And make me such a vessel of thy worth,
As thy own laurel claims of me belov’d.