Translations: Dante - Inferno, Canto Xxvi Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBAACCDDEE FFGGHHIIJJKKL LEEMMAANNOOIIPPQQNE NNNNNRRNNEENNEESSTTU UVVIIWWAAUUII IIEEXXIIYYTTNNMMYYII AAZZNNJJSSNNA2A2NNNN IIXXII PMMWWNNA2A2NNOONNB2B 2AAAAA| Florence 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| Then is the vengeful hour not far withdrawn | C |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 |
| - | |
| - | |
| 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 |
| - | |
| - | |
| 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 |
| - | |
| - | |
| 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 |
| - | |
| - | |
| 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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Translations: Dante - Inferno, Canto Xxvi is a poem by Alan Seeger. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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