Part 59

And I remember that I was more bold On this account to bear, so that I joined My aspect with the Glory Infinite.

O grace abundant, by which I presumed To fix my sight upon the Light Eternal, So that the seeing I consumed therein!

I saw that in its depth far down is lying Bound up with love together in one volume, What through the universe in leaves is scattered;

Substance, and accident, and their operations, All interfused together in such wise That what I speak of is one simple light.

The universal fashion of this knot Methinks I saw, since more abundantly In saying this I feel that I rejoice.

One moment is more lethargy to me, Than five and twenty centuries to the emprise That startled Neptune with the shade of Argo!

My mind in this wise wholly in suspense, Steadfast, immovable, attentive gazed, And evermore with gazing grew enkindled.

In presence of that light one such becomes, That to withdraw therefrom for other prospect It is impossible he e’er consent;

Because the good, which object is of will, Is gathered all in this, and out of it That is defective which is perfect there.

Shorter henceforward will my language fall Of what I yet remember, than an infant’s Who still his tongue doth moisten at the breast.

Not because more than one unmingled semblance Was in the living light on which I looked, For it is always what it was before;

But through the sight, that fortified itself In me by looking, one appearance only To me was ever changing as I changed.

Within the deep and luminous subsistence Of the High Light appeared to me three circles, Of threefold colour and of one dimension,

And by the second seemed the first reflected As Iris is by Iris, and the third Seemed fire that equally from both is breathed.

O how all speech is feeble and falls short Of my conceit, and this to what I saw Is such, ’tis not enough to call it little!

O Light Eterne, sole in thyself that dwellest, Sole knowest thyself, and, known unto thyself And knowing, lovest and smilest on thyself!

That circulation, which being thus conceived Appeared in thee as a reflected light, When somewhat contemplated by mine eyes,

Within itself, of its own very colour Seemed to me painted with our effigy, Wherefore my sight was all absorbed therein.

As the geometrician, who endeavours To square the circle, and discovers not, By taking thought, the principle he wants,

Even such was I at that new apparition; I wished to see how the image to the circle Conformed itself, and how it there finds place;

But my own wings were not enough for this, Had it not been that then my mind there smote A flash of lightning, wherein came its wish.

Here vigour failed the lofty fantasy: But now was turning my desire and will, Even as a wheel that equally is moved,

The Love which moves the sun and the other stars.

APPENDIX

SIX SONNETS ON DANTE’S DIVINE COMEDY BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (1807-1882)

Oft have I seen at some cathedral door A laborer, pausing in the dust and heat, Lay down his burden, and with reverent feet Enter, and cross himself, and on the floor Kneel to repeat his paternoster o’er; Far off the noises of the world retreat; The loud vociferations of the street Become an undistinguishable roar. So, as I enter here from day to day, And leave my burden at this minster gate, Kneeling in prayer, and not ashamed to pray, The tumult of the time disconsolate To inarticulate murmurs dies away, While the eternal ages watch and wait.

How strange the sculptures that adorn these towers! This crowd of statues, in whose folded sleeves Birds build their nests; while canopied with leaves Parvis and portal bloom like trellised bowers, And the vast minster seems a cross of flowers! But fiends and dragons on the gargoyled eaves Watch the dead Christ between the living thieves, And, underneath, the traitor Judas lowers! Ah! from what agonies of heart and brain, What exultations trampling on despair, What tenderness, what tears, what hate of wrong, What passionate outcry of a soul in pain, Uprose this poem of the earth and air, This mediaeval miracle of song!

III