Cantos From Dante's Paradiso Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A ABAACDEFGHIJKLMKLNAO PALQRSAOAITOTAOAU AVUAWKXY LAOLAOAOZA2B2OAKC2D2 OAOE2WAOLF2D AAAAAOAAACSYG2OKKDOH 2B2OAB2AI2B2J2OK2KB2 K OAOB2LAL2M2OKPOKFPN2 FOOAOO2VVKB2OVOVO L2 KVKOB2P2KK OAAAKB2LAM2OOAAQ2OOA LOL2 KAOVAR2L2AS2L2OVAOACanto XXIII | A |
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Even as a bird 'mid the beloved leaves | A |
Quiet upon the nest of her sweet brood | B |
Throughout the night that hideth all things from us | A |
Who that she may behold their longed for looks | A |
And find the nourishment wherewith to feed them | C |
In which to her grave labors grateful are | D |
Anticipates the time on open spray | E |
And with an ardent longing waits the sun | F |
Gazing intent as soon as breaks the dawn | G |
Even thus my Lady standing was erect | H |
And vigilant turned round towards the zone | I |
Underneath which the sun displays least haste | J |
So that beholding her distraught and eager | K |
Such I became as he is who desiring | L |
For something yearns and hoping is appeased | M |
But brief the space from one When to the other | K |
From my awaiting say I to the seeing | L |
The welkin grow resplendent more and more | N |
And Beatrice exclaimed 'Behold the hosts | A |
Of the triumphant Christ and all the fruit | O |
Harvested by the rolling of these spheres ' | - |
It seemed to me her face was all on flame | P |
And eyes she had so full of ecstasy | A |
That I must needs pass on without describing | L |
As when in nights serene of the full moon | Q |
Smiles Trivia among the nymphs eternal | R |
Who paint the heaven through all its hollow cope | S |
Saw I above the myriads of lamps | A |
A sun that one and all of them enkindled | O |
E'en as our own does the supernal stars | A |
And through the living light transparent shone | I |
The lucent substance so intensely clear | T |
Into my sight that I could not sustain it | O |
O Beatrice my gentle guide and dear | T |
She said to me 'That which o'ermasters thee | A |
A virtue is which no one can resist | O |
There are the wisdom and omnipotence | A |
That oped the thoroughfares 'twixt heaven and earth | U |
For which there erst had been so long a yearning ' | - |
As fire from out a cloud itself discharges | A |
Dilating so it finds not room therein | V |
And down against its nature falls to earth | U |
So did my mind among those aliments | A |
Becoming larger issue from itself | W |
And what became of it cannot remember | K |
'Open thine eyes and look at what I am | X |
Thou hast beheld such things that strong enough | Y |
Hast thou become to tolerate my smile ' | - |
I was as one who still retains the feeling | L |
Of a forgotten dream and who endeavors | A |
In vain to bring it back into his mind | O |
When I this invitation heard deserving | L |
Of so much gratitude it never fades | A |
Out of the book that chronicles the past | O |
It at this moment sounded all the tongues | A |
That Polyhymnia and her sisters made | O |
Most lubrical with their delicious milk | Z |
To aid me to a thousandth of the truth | A2 |
It would not reach singing the holy smile | B2 |
And how the holy aspect it illumed | O |
And therefore representing Paradise | A |
The sacred poem must perforce leap over | K |
Even as a man who finds his way cut off | C2 |
But whoso thinketh of the ponderous theme | D2 |
And of the mortal shoulder that sustains it | O |
Should blame it not if under this it trembles | A |
It is no passage for a little boat | O |
This which goes cleaving the audacious prow | E2 |
Nor for a pilot who would spare himself | W |
'Why does my face so much enamor thee | A |
That to the garden fair thou turnest not | O |
Which under the rays of Christ is blossoming | L |
There is the rose in which the Word Divine | F2 |
Became incarnate there the lilies are | D |
By whose perfume the good way was selected ' | - |
Thus Beatrice and I who to her counsels | A |
Was wholly ready once again betook me | A |
Unto the battle of the feeble brows | A |
As in a sunbeam that unbroken passes | A |
Through fractured cloud ere now a meadow of flowers | A |
Mine eyes with shadow covered have beheld | O |
So I beheld the multitudinous splendors | A |
Refulgent from above with burning rays | A |
Beholding not the source of the effulgence | A |
O thou benignant power that so imprint'st them | C |
Thou didst exalt thyself to give more scope | S |
There to the eyes that were not strong enough | Y |
The name of that fair flower I e'er invoke | G2 |
Morning and evening utterly enthralled | O |
My soul to gaze upon the greater fire | K |
And when in both mine eyes depicted were | K |
The glory and greatness of the living star | D |
Which conquers there and here below it conquered | O |
Athwart the heavens descended a bright sheen | H2 |
Formed in a circle like a coronal | B2 |
And cinctured it and whirled itself about it | O |
Whatever melody most sweetly soundeth | A |
On earth and to itself most draws the soul | B2 |
Would seem a cloud that rent asunder thunders | A |
Compared unto the sounding of that lyre | I2 |
Wherewith was crowned the sapphire beautiful | B2 |
Which gives the clearest heaven its sapphire hue | J2 |
'I am Angelic Love that circle round | O |
The joy sublime which breathes from out the bosom | K2 |
That was the hostelry of our Desire | K |
And I shall circle Lady of Heaven while | B2 |
Thou followest thy Son and mak'st diviner | K |
The sphere supreme because thou enterest it ' | - |
Thus did the circulated melody | O |
Seal itself up and all the other lights | A |
Were making resonant the name of Mary | O |
The regal mantle of the volumes all | B2 |
Of that world which most fervid is and living | L |
With breath of God and with his works and ways | A |
Extended over us its inner curve | L2 |
So very distant that its outward show | M2 |
There where I was not yet appeared to me | O |
Therefore mine eyes did not possess the power | K |
Of following the incoronated flame | P |
Which had ascended near to its own seed | O |
And as a little child that toward its mother | K |
Extends its arms when it the milk has taken | F |
Through impulse kindled into outward flame | P |
Each of those gleams of white did upward stretch | N2 |
So with its summit that the deep affection | F |
They had for Mary was revealed to me | O |
Thereafter they remained there in my sight | O |
Regina coeli singing with such sweetness | A |
That ne'er from me has the delight departed | O |
Oh what exuberance is garnered up | O2 |
In those resplendent coffers which had been | V |
For sowing here below good husbandmen | V |
There they enjoy and live upon the treasure | K |
Which was acquired while weeping in the exile | B2 |
Of Babylon wherein the gold was left | O |
There triumpheth beneath the exalted Son | V |
Of God and Mary in his victory | O |
Both with the ancient council and the new | V |
He who doth keep the keys of such a glory | O |
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Canto XXIV | L2 |
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'O company elect to the great supper | K |
Of the Lamb benedight who feedeth you | V |
So that for ever full is your desire | K |
If by the grace of God this man foretaste | O |
Something of that which falleth from your table | B2 |
Or ever death prescribe to him the time | P2 |
Direct your mind to his immense desire | K |
And him somewhat bedew ye drinking are | K |
For ever at the fount whence comes his thought ' | - |
Thus Beatrice and those souls beatified | O |
Transformed themselves to spheres on steadfast poles | A |
Flaming intensely in the guise of comets | A |
And as the wheels in works of horologes | A |
Revolve so that the first to the beholder | K |
Motionless seems and the last one to fly | B2 |
So in like manner did those carols dancing | L |
In different measure of their affluence | A |
Give me the gauge as they were swift or slow | M2 |
From that one which I noted of most beauty | O |
Beheld I issue forth a fire so happy | O |
That none it left there of a greater brightness | A |
And around Beatrice three several times | A |
It whirled itself with so divine a song | Q2 |
My fantasy repeats it not to me | O |
Therefore the pen skips and I write it not | O |
Since our imagination for such folds | A |
Much more our speech is of a tint too glaring | L |
'O holy sister mine who us implorest | O |
With such devotion by thine ardent love | L2 |
Thou dost unbind me from that beautiful sphere ' | - |
Thereafter having stopped the blessed fire | K |
Unto my Lady did direct its breath | A |
Which spake in fashion as I here have said | O |
And she 'O light eterne of the great man | V |
To whom our Lord delivered up the keys | A |
He carried down of this miraculous joy | R2 |
This one examine on points light and grave | L2 |
As good beseemeth thee about the Faith | A |
By means of which thou on the sea didst walk | S2 |
If he love well and hope well and believe | L2 |
From thee 'tis hid not for thou hast thy sight | O |
There where depicted everything is seen | V |
But since this kingdom has made citizens | A |
By means of the true Faith to glorify it | O |
'Tis well he have the | A |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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