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  "work": {
    "slug": "inferno",
    "name": "Inferno"
  },
  "parents": [
    {
      "slug": "divine-comedy",
      "name": "Divine Comedy",
      "url": "/sources/divine-comedy/"
    }
  ],
  "chapter": {
    "num": 1,
    "slug": "canto-1",
    "title": "Inferno · Canto 1",
    "of": 34,
    "words": 1418,
    "text": "## Inferno Canto 1\n\n\nCanto I\n\nArgument\n\nThe writer, having lost his way in a gloomy forest, and being hindered by\ncertain wild beasts from ascending a mountain, is met by Virgil, who promises\nto show him the punishments of Hell, and afterward of Purgatory; and that he\nshall then be conducted by Beatrice into Paradise. He follows the Roman poet.\n\nMidway the path of life that men pursue\nI found me in a darkling wood astray,\nFor the direct way had been lost to view.\nAh me, how hard a thing it is to say\nWhat was this thorny wildwood intricate\nWhose memory renews the first dismay!\nScarcely in death is bitterness more great:\nBut as concerns the good discovered there\nThe other things I saw will I relate.\n\nIn the midway[1] of this our mortal life,\nI found me in a gloomy wood, astray\nGone from the path direct: and e'en to tell,\nIt were no easy task, how savage wild\nThat forest, how robust and rough its growth,\nWhich to remember only, my dismay\nRenews, in bitterness not far from death.\nYet, to discourse of what there good befel,\nAll else will I relate discover'd there.\n\n[1: \"In the midway.\" The era of the poem is intended by these words\nto be fixed to the thirty - fifth year of the poet's age, A.D. 1300. In this\nConvito, human life is compared to an arch or bow, the highest point of which\nis, in those well framed by nature, at their thirty - fifth year.]\n\nHow first I enter'd it I scarce can say,\nSuch sleepy dulness in that instant weigh'd\nMy senses down, when the true path I left;\nBut when a mountain's foot I reach'd, where closed\nThe valley that had pierced my heart with dread,\nI look'd aloft, and saw his shoulders broad\nAlready vested with that planet's beam,[2]\nWho leads all wanderers safe through every way.\n\n[2: \"That planet's beam.\" The sun.]\n\nThen was a little respite to the fear,\nThat in my heart's recesses deep had lain\nAll of that night, so pitifully past:\nAnd as a man, with difficult short breath,\nForespent with toiling, 'scaped from sea to shore,\nTurns to the perilous wide waste, and stands\n\nA gaze; e'en so my spirit, that yet fail'd,\nStruggling with terror, turn'd to view the straits\nThat none hath passed and lived. My weary frame\nAfter short pause recomforted, again\nI journey'd on over that lonely steep,\nThe hinder foot[3] still firmer. Scarce the ascent\nBegan, when, lo! a panther,[4] nimble, light,\nAnd cover'd with a speckled skin, appear'd;\nNor, when it saw me, vanish'd; rather strove\nTo check my onward going; that oft - times,\nWith purpose to retrace my steps, I turn'd.\n\n[3: \"The hinder foot.\" In ascending a hill the weight of the body\nrests on the hinder foot.]\n\n[4: \"A panther.\" Pleasure or luxury.]\n\nThe hour was morning's prime, and on his way\nAloft the sun ascended with those stars,[5]\nThat with him rose when Love Divine first moved\nThose its fair works: so that with joyous hope\nAll things conspired to fill me, the gay skin\nOf that swift animal, the matin dawn,\nAnd the sweet season. Soon that joy was chased.\nAnd by new dread succeeded, when in view\nA lion came, 'gainst me as it appear'd,\nWith his head held aloft and hunger - mad,\nThat e'en the air was fear - struck. A she - wolf\nWas at his heels, who in her leanness seem'd\nFull of all wants, and many a land hath made\nDisconsolate ere now. She with such fear\nO'erwhelm'd me, at the sight of her appall'd,\nThat of the height all hope I lost. As one,\nWho, with his gain elated, sees the time\nWhen all unawares is gone, he inwardly\nMourns with heart - griping anguish; such was I,\nHaunted by that fell beast, never at peace,\nWho coming o'er against me, by degrees\nImpell'd me where the sun in silence rests.\n\n[5: \"With those stars.\" The sun was in Aries, in which sign he\nsupposes it to have begun its course at the creation.]\n\nWhile to the lower space with backward step\nI fell, my ken discern'd the form of one\nWhose voice seem'd faint through lond disuse of speech.\nWhen him in that great desert I espied,\n\n\"Have mercy on me,\" cried I out aloud,\n\"Spirit! or living man! whate'er thou be.\"\n\nHe answered: \"Now not man, man once I was,\nAnd born of Lombard parents, Mantuans both\nBy country, when the power of Julius yet\nWas scarcely firm. At Rome my life was past,\nBeneath the mild Augustus, in the time\nOf fabled deities and false. A bard\nWas I, and made Anchises' upright son\nThe subject of my song, who came from Troy,\nWhen the flames prey'd on Ilium's haughty towers.\nBut thou, say wherefore to such perils past\nReturn'st thou? wherefore not this pleasant mount\nAscendest, cause and source of all delight?\"\n\"And art thou then that Virgil, that well - spring,\nFrom which such copious floods of eloquence\nHave issued?\" I with front abash'd replied.\n\"Glory and light of all the tuneful train!\nMay it avail me, that I long with zeal\nHave sought thy volume, and with love immense\nHave conn'd it o'er. My master thou, and guide!\nThou he from whom alone I have derived\nThat style, which for its beauty into fame\nExalts me. See the beast, from whom I fled.\nO save me from her, thou illustrious sage!\nFor every vein and pulse throughout my frame\nShe hath made tremble.\" He, soon as he saw\nThat I was weeping, answer'd, \"Thou must needs\nAnother way pursue, if thou wouldst 'scape\nFrom out that savage wilderness. This beast,\nAt whom thou criest, her way will suffer none\nTo pass, and no less hinderance makes than death:\nSo bad and so accursed in her kind,\nThat never sated is her ravenous will,\nStill after food more craving than before.\nTo many an animal in wedlock vile\nShe fastens, and shall yet to many more,\nUntil that greyhound[6] come, who shall destroy\n\n[6: This passage has been commonly understood as a eulogium on the\nliberal spirit of his Veronese patron, Can Grande della Scala.]\n\nHer with sharp pain. He will not life support\nBy earth nor its base metals, but by love,\nWisdom, and virtue; and his land shall be\nThe land 'twixt either Feltro.[7] In his might\nShall safety to Italia's plains arise,\nFor whose fair realm, Camilla, virgin pure,\nNisus, Euryalus, and Turnus fell.\nHe, with incessant chase, through every town\nShall worry, until he to hell at length\nRestore her, thence by envy first let loose.\nI, for thy profit pondering, now devise\nThat thou mayst follow me; and I, thy guide,\nWill lead thee hence through an eternal space,\nWhere thou shalt hear despairing shrieks, and see\nSpirits of old tormented, who invoke\nA second death;[8] and those next view, who dwell\nContent in fire,[9] for that they hope to come,\nWhene'er the time may be, among the blest,\nInto whose regions if thou then desire\nTo ascend, a spirit worthier[10] than I\nMust lead thee, in whose charge, when I depart,\nThou shalt be left; for that Almighty King,\nWho reigns above, a rebel to His law\nAdjudges me; and therefore hath decreed\nThat, to His city, none through me should come.\nHe in all parts hath sway; there rules, there holds\nHis citadel and throne. O happy those,\nWhom there He chuses!\" I to him in few:\n\"Bard! by that God, whom thou didst not adore,\nI do beseech thee (that this ill and worse\nI may escape) to lead me where thou said'st,\nThat I Saint Peter's gate[11] may view, and those\nWho, as thou tell'st, are in such dismal plight.\"\nOnward he moved, I close his steps pursued.\n\n[7: Verona, the country of Can della Scala, is situated between\nFeltro, a city in the Marca Trivigiana, and Monte Feltro, a city in the\nterritory of Urbino.]\n\n[8: \"A second death.\" \"And in these days men shall seek death, and\nshall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.\"\nRev. ix. 6.]\n\n[9: The spirits in Purgatory.]\n\n[10: \"A spirit worthier.\" Beatrice, who conducts the Poet through\nParadise.]\n\n[11: The gate of Purgatory, which the Poet feigns to be guarded by an\nangel placed there by St. Peter.]",
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}