Translations: Dante - Inferno, Canto Xxvi Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBAACCDDEE FFGGHHIIJJKKL LEEMMAANNOOIIPPQQNE NNNNNRRNNEENNEESSTTU UVVIIWWAAUUII IIEEXXIIYYTTNNMMYYII AAZZNNJJSSNNA2A2NNNN IIXXII PMMWWNNA2A2NNOONNB2B 2AAAAAFlorence rejoice For thou o'er land and sea | A |
So spread'st thy pinions that the fame of thee | A |
Hath reached no less into the depths of Hell | B |
So noble were the five I found to dwell | B |
Therein thy sons whence shame accrues to me | A |
And no great praise is thine but if it be | A |
That truth unveil in dreamings before dawn | C |
Then is the vengeful hour not far withdrawn | C |
When Prato shall exult within her walls | D |
To see thy suffering Whate'er befalls | D |
Let it come soon since come it must for later | E |
Each year would see my grief for thee the greater | E |
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We left and once more up the craggy side | F |
By the blind steps of our descent my guide | F |
Remounting drew me on So we pursued | G |
The rugged path through that steep solitude | G |
Where rocks and splintered fragments strewed the land | H |
So thick that foot availed not without hand | H |
Grief filled me then and still great sorrow stirs | I |
My heart as oft as memory recurs | I |
To what I saw that more and more I rein | J |
My natural powers and curb them lest they strain | J |
Where Virtue guide not that if some good star | K |
Or better thing have made them what they are | K |
That good I may not grudge nor turn to ill | L |
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As when reclining on some verdant hill | L |
What season the hot sun least veils his power | E |
That lightens all and in that gloaming hour | E |
The fly resigns to the shrill gnat even then | M |
As rustic looking down sees o'er the glen | M |
Vineyard or tilth where lies his husbandry | A |
Fireflies innumerable sparkle so to me | A |
Come where its mighty depth unfolded straight | N |
With flames no fewer seemed to scintillate | N |
The shades of the eighth pit And as to him | O |
Whose wrongs the bears avenged dim and more dim | O |
Elijah's chariot seemed when to the skies | I |
Uprose the heavenly steeds and still his eyes | I |
Strained following them till naught remained in view | P |
But flame like a thin cloud against the blue | P |
So here the melancholy gulf within | Q |
Wandered these flames concealing each its sin | Q |
Yet each a fiery integument | N |
Wrapped round a sinner | E |
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On the bridge intent | N |
Gazing I stood and grasped its flinty side | N |
Or else unpushed had fallen And my guide | N |
Observing me so moved spake saying Behold | N |
Where swathed each in his unconsuming fold | N |
The spirits lie confined Whom answering | R |
Master I said thy words assurance bring | R |
To that which I already had supposed | N |
And I was fain to ask who lies enclosed | N |
In the embrace of that dividing fire | E |
Which seems to curl above the fabled pyre | E |
Where with his twin born brother fiercely hated | N |
Eteocles was laid He answered Mated | N |
In punishment as once in wrath they were | E |
Ulysses there and Diomed incur | E |
The eternal pains there groaning they deplore | S |
The ambush of the horse which made the door | S |
For Rome's imperial seed to issue there | T |
In anguish too they wail the fatal snare | T |
Whence dead Deidamia still must grieve | U |
Reft of Achilles likewise they receive | U |
Due penalty for the Palladium | V |
Master I said if in that martyrdom | V |
The power of human speech may still be theirs | I |
I pray and think it worth a thousand prayers | I |
That till this horned flame be come more nigh | W |
We may abide here for thou seest that I | W |
With great desire incline to it And he | A |
Thy prayer deserves great praise which willingly | A |
I grant but thou refrain from speaking leave | U |
That task to me for fully I conceive | U |
What thing thou wouldst and it might fall perchance | I |
That these being Greeks would scorn thine utterance | I |
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So when the flame had come where time and place | I |
Seemed not unfitting to my guide with grace | I |
To question thus he spoke at my desire | E |
O ye that are two souls within one fire | E |
If in your eyes some merit I have won | X |
Merit or more or less for tribute done | X |
When in the world I framed my lofty verse | I |
Move not but fain were we that one rehearse | I |
By what strange fortunes to his death he came | Y |
The elder crescent of the antique flame | Y |
Began to wave as in the upper air | T |
A flame is tempest tortured here and there | T |
Tossing its angry height and in its sound | N |
As human speech it suddenly had found | N |
Rolled forth a voice of thunder saying When | M |
The twelvemonth past in Circe's halls again | M |
I left Gaeta's strand ere thither came | Y |
Aeneas and had given it that name | Y |
Not love of son nor filial reverence | I |
Nor that affection that might recompense | I |
The weary vigil of Penelope | A |
Could so far quench the hot desire in me | A |
To prove more wonders of the teeming earth | Z |
Of human frailty and of manly worth | Z |
In one small bark and with the faithful band | N |
That all awards had shared of Fortune's hand | N |
I launched once more upon the open main | J |
Both shores I visited as far as Spain | J |
Sardinia and Morocco and what more | S |
The midland sea upon its bosom wore | S |
The hour of our lives was growing late | N |
When we arrived before that narrow strait | N |
Where Hercules had set his bounds to show | A2 |
That there Man's foot shall pause and further none shall go | A2 |
Borne with the gale past Seville on the right | N |
And on the left now swept by Ceuta's site | N |
Brothers ' I cried that into the far West | N |
Through perils numberless are now addressed | N |
In this brief respite that our mortal sense | I |
Yet hath shrink not from new experience | I |
But sailing still against the setting sun | X |
Seek we new worlds where Man has never won | X |
Before us Ponder your proud destinies | I |
Born were ye not like brutes for swinish ease | I |
But virtue and high knowledge to pursue ' | - |
My comrades with such zeal did I imbue | P |
By these brief words that scarcely could I then | M |
Have turned them from their purpose so again | M |
We set out poop against the morning sky | W |
And made our oars as wings wherewith to fly | W |
Into the Unknown And ever from the right | N |
Our course deflecting in the balmy night | N |
All southern stars we saw and ours so low | A2 |
That scarce above the sea marge it might show | A2 |
So five revolving periods the soft | N |
Pale light had robbed of Cynthia and as oft | N |
Replenished since our start when far and dim | O |
Over the misty ocean's utmost rim | O |
Rose a great mountain that for very height | N |
Passed any I had seen Boundless delight | N |
Filled us alas and quickly turned to dole | B2 |
For springing from our scarce discovered goal | B2 |
A whirlwind struck the ship in circles three | A |
It whirled us helpless in the eddying sea | A |
High on the fourth the fragile stern uprose | A |
The bow drove down and as Another chose | A |
Over our heads we heard the surging billows close | A |
Alan Seeger
(1)
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