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Seventeen Cantos of the Inferno of Dante Alighieri
Seventeen Cantos of the Inferno of Dante Alighieri Author:Dante Alighieri Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CANTO THE FOURTH. THE FIRST CIRCLE, OR LIMBO : HOMER AND HIS SCHOOL. My brain's deep sleep was broken by a stroke Of heavy thunder, so that roused upright,... more » Like one by sudden violence awoke, With eyes refreshed, I rolled around my sight; And fixedly I gazed, the place to know Wherein I found me: o'er the brink I hung Of the dread valley of the abyss of woe, Whence gathered groans in ceaseless thunders rung. Dark, fathomless it yawned; clouds o'er it curled; Down in its depths I pored, but nought discerned: " Descend we now to yonder rayless world," The Poet said, and deadly pale he turned; " But be thou second — I will go the first." Whereto I answered, noting his changed hue, " Art thou dismayed who still my strength hast nurst? Then how shall I this journey dare pursue?" Then he to me: " The anguish that you hear Of those who moan below there makes my face Pallid with pity, never think I fear: But come, our long road chides this lingering pace." Herewith he entered, and conveyed me in To the First Circle of the pit profound, Where nought distinct I heard, but one low din Of sighs that shook the eternal breeze around, — Sighs born of mental, not of corporal throes, 'Mid countless crowds of women, babes, and men. " Inquir'st not," said my master, " who are those, The spirits yonder, now within thy ken ? Ere thou proceed, this to thy knowledge add: No sinners they; yet, though their works were good, 'Tis not enough, since they no Baptism had, Which thy Faith's portal must be understood. Christ's coming, too, since they were born before (And numbered with such hapless ones am I), They could but ignorantly God adore, For which deficiency alone we die; Punished thus far, that in desire we dwell, — Ceaseless desire where hope hath ...« less