Translated by Henry Francis Cary
Selections from “The Divine Comedy”
Hell: Canto III.
“THROUGH me you pass into the city of woe:
Through me you pass into eternal pain:
Through me among the people lost for aye.
Justice the founder of my fabric moved:
To rear me was the task of power divine,
Supremest wisdom, and primeval love....
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Translated by Henry Francis Cary
Selections from “The Divine Comedy”
Purgatory: Canto VI.
WHEN I was freed
From all those spirits, who prayed for others’ prayers
To hasten on their state of blessedness;
Straight I began: “O thou, my luminary!
It seems expressly in thy text denied,
That Heaven’s supreme... -
Translated by Henry Francis Cary
Selections from “The Divine Comedy”
Purgatory: Canto XI.
“O THOU Almighty Father! who dost make
The heavens thy dwelling, not in bounds confined,
But that, with love intenser, there thou view’st
Thy primal effluence; hallowed be thy name:
Join, each created being, to extol
Thy might; for worthy... -
Translated by Henry Francis Cary
Selections from “The Divine Comedy”
Purgatory: Canto XVI.
“YE, who live,
Do so each cause refer to heaven above,
E’en as its motion, of necessity,
Drew with it all that moves. If this were so,
Free choice in you were none; nor justice would
There should be joy for virtue,... -
Translated by Henry Francis Cary
Selections from “The Divine Comedy”
Purgatory: Canto XXVII.
NOW was the sun so stationed, as when first
His early radiance quivers on the heights,
Where streamed his Maker’s blood; while Libra hangs
Above Hesperian Ebro; and new fires,
Meridian, flash on Ganges’ yellow tide.
So day was sinking, when... -
Translated by Henry Francis Cary
Selections from “The Divine Comedy”
Paradise: Canto VII.
WHAT I have heard,
Is plain, thou say’st: but wherefore God this way
For our redemption chose, eludes my search.
“Brother! no eye of man not perfected,
Nor fully ripened in the flame of love,
May fathom this decree. It is a... -
Translated by Henry Francis Cary
Selections from “The Divine Comedy”
Paradise: Canto XIV.
AND lo! forthwith there rose up round about
A lustre, over that already there;
Of equal clearness, like the brightening up
Of the horizon. As at evening hour
Of twilight, new appearances through heaven
Peer with faint glimmer, doubtfully... -
Translated by Henry Francis Cary
Selections from “The Divine Comedy”
Paradise: Canto XXXI.
IN fashion, as a snow-white rose, lay then
Before my view the saintly multitude,
Which is his own blood Christ espoused. Meanwhile,
That other host, that soar aloft to gaze
And celebrate his glory, whom they love,
Hovered around; and, like a... -
Poets are singing the whole world over
Of May in melody, joys for June;
Dusting their feet in the careless clover,
And filling their hearts with the blackbird’s tune.
The “brown bright nightingale” strikes with pity
The sensitive heart of a count or clown;
But where is the song for our leafy city,
And where the rhymes for our... -
A Fragment
I WILL go out to grass with that old King,
For I am weary of clothes and cooks.
I long to lie along the banks of brooks,
And watch the boughs above me sway and swing.
Come, I will pluck off custom’s livery,
Nor longer be a lackey to old Time,
Time shall serve me, and at my feet shall fling
The spoil of listless minutes....