No longer than what time Latona's twins Cover'd of Libra and the fleecy star, Together both, girding the' horizon hang, In even balance from the zenith pois'd,...
If e'er the sacred poem that hath made Both heav'n and earth copartners in its toil, And with lean abstinence, through many a year, Faded my brow, be destin'd to prevail Over the cruelty, which bars me forth...
With dazzled eyes, whilst wond'ring I remain'd, Forth of the beamy flame which dazzled me, Issued a breath, that in attention mute Detain'd me; and these words it spake: "'T were well,...
Then "Glory to the Father, to the Son, And to the Holy Spirit," rang aloud Throughout all Paradise, that with the song My spirit reel'd, so passing sweet the strain: And what I saw was equal ecstasy;...
So she who doth imparadise my soul, Had drawn the veil from off our pleasant life, And bar'd the truth of poor mortality; When lo! as one who, in a mirror, spies The shining of a flambeau at his back,...
Noon's fervid hour perchance six thousand miles From hence is distant; and the shadowy cone Almost to level on our earth declines; When from the midmost of this blue abyss...
In fashion, as a snow-white rose, lay then Before my view the saintly multitude, Which in his own blood Christ espous'd. Meanwhile That other host, that soar aloft to gaze...
Freely the sage, though wrapt in musings high, Assum'd the teacher's part, and mild began: "The wound, that Mary clos'd, she open'd first, Who sits so beautiful at Mary's feet....
"O virgin mother, daughter of thy Son, Created beings all in lowliness Surpassing, as in height, above them all, Term by th' eternal counsel pre-ordain'd, Ennobler of thy nature, so advanc'd...
When we had passed the threshold of the gate (Which the soul's ill affection doth disuse, Making the crooked seem the straighter path), I heard its closing sound. Had mine eyes turn'd,...
"O thou Almighty Father, who dost make The heavens thy dwelling, not in bounds confin'd, But that with love intenser there thou view'st Thy primal effluence, hallow'd be thy name:...
With equal pace as oxen in the yoke, I with that laden spirit journey'd on Long as the mild instructor suffer'd me; But when he bade me quit him, and proceed...
We reach'd the summit of the scale, and stood Upon the second buttress of that mount Which healeth him who climbs. A cornice there, Like to the former, girdles round the hill;...
It was the hour, when of diurnal heat No reliques chafe the cold beams of the moon, O'erpower'd by earth, or planetary sway Of Saturn; and the geomancer sees His Greater Fortune up the east ascend,...
As much as 'twixt the third hour's close and dawn, Appeareth of heav'n's sphere, that ever whirls As restless as an infant in his play, So much appear'd remaining to the sun...
Hell's dunnest gloom, or night unlustrous, dark, Of every planes 'reft, and pall'd in clouds, Did never spread before the sight a veil In thickness like that fog, nor to the sense...
Call to remembrance, reader, if thou e'er Hast, on a mountain top, been ta'en by cloud, Through which thou saw'st no better, than the mole Doth through opacous membrane; then, whene'er...
The teacher ended, and his high discourse Concluding, earnest in my looks inquir'd If I appear'd content; and I, whom still Unsated thirst to hear him urg'd, was mute, Mute outwardly, yet inwardly I said:...