Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/138



F a new pain behoves me to make verses

And give material to the twentieth canto

Of the first song, which is of the submerged.

I was already thoroughly disposed

To peer down into the uncovered depth,

Which bathed itself with tears of agony;

And people saw I through the circular valley,

Silent and weeping, coming at the pace

Which in this world the Litanies assume.

As lower down my sight descended on them,

Wondrously each one seemed to be distorted

From chin to the beginning of the chest;

For tow'rds the reins the countenance was turned,

And backward it behoved them to advance,

As to look forward had been taken from them.

Perchance indeed by violence of palsy

Some one has been thus wholly turned awry;

But I ne'er saw it, nor believe it can be.