FT have I seen at some cathedral door A laborer, pausing in the dust and heat, Lay down his burden, and with reverent feet Enter, and cross himself, and on the floor Kneel to repeat his paternoster o'er; Far off the noises of the world retreat; The loud vociferations of the street Become an undistinguishable roar. So, as I enter here from day to day, And leave my burden at this minster gate, The tumult of the time disconsolate To inarticulate murmurs dies away, While the eternal ages watch and wait. How This crowd of statues, in whose folded sleeves Birds build their nests; while canopied with leaves Parvis and portal bloom like trellised bowers, And the vast minster seems a cross of flowers! And, underneath, the traitor Judas lowers! Ah! from what agonies of heart and brain, What exultations trampling on despair, What tenderness, what tears, what hate of wrong, What passionate outcry of a soul in pain, Uprose this poem of the earth and air, This mediæval miracle of song! INFERNO CANTO I. MIDWAY upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark, For the straightforward pathway had been lost. What was this forest savage, rough, and stern, So bitter is it, death is little more; But of the good to treat, which there I found, So full was I of slumber at the moment In which I had abandoned the true way. But after I had reached a mountain's foot, At that point where the valley terminated, 5 10 Which had with consternation pierced my heart, 15 |