Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/119

Rh "It must needs be some novelty respond,"

I said within myself, "to the new signal

The Master with his eye is following so."

Ah me! how very cautious men should be

With those who not alone behold the act,

But with their wisdom look into the thoughts!

He said to me: "Soon there will upward come

What I await; and what thy thought is dreaming

Must soon reveal itself unto thy sight."

Aye to that truth which has the face of falsehood,

A man should close his lips as far as may be,

Because without his fault it causes shame;

But here I can not; and, Reader, by the notes

Of this my Comedy to thee I swear,

So may they not be void of lasting favor,

Athwart that dense and darksome atmosphere

I saw a figure swimming upward come,

Marvellous unto every steadfast heart,

Even as he returns who goeth down

Sometimes to clear an anchor, which has grappled

Reef, or aught else that in the sea is hidden,

Who upward stretches, and draws in his feet.