Twenty-Five Cantos from the Divina Commedia (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1897. Excerpt: ... Dante PARADISO Canto XXII AMAZED in stupor, turned towards my guide, Her aid I seek;--and as a child might run To that wherein it can the most confide, And as the mother soothes her pale and breathless son, With voice whose tone alone like hers can aid; Beatrice then: --" Knowest thou not that now Thou art in Heaven, where all is holy made, And with a righteous zeal does all things there endow, "Which has transmuted all the former songs That held thy power at first within my smile; As to a louder note it now belongs, Mingled with all thy praise, as thou wilt know erewhile. "Already thou mayst hear the vengeful cry Which the first signal gives, and is the rim Of that which thou must see before thou die;--A sword not held above in haste, nor slow to him "Who, seeing, watches its descent with fear. Other illustrious spirits thou shalt see Within the vista of my words appear; And eyes well pleased as thine directed then will be "Towards a hundred orbs blending their light, And with such splendour, making more display;--Whilst in their spheres revolving seem more bright, Because their effluence joined, blends in a mutual ray." I was as one who fails to understand The point desired, of it too much had feared;--When one, the largest pearl of all that band, The most translucent, to enlighten me appeared. And from within, I heard him say--" If thou Couldst see as I the love that makes us blend In so much ardour, thou wouldst others show;--And that thy expectation may not wait for that high end, "I will make answer to thy thought, confide The truth concerning it as meets thy ken: That mountain with Cassino on its side Was once the haunt of ignorance and wicked men; "And I am he that bore them the first time His name, who was the carrier to the earth Of truth, that h...