Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/175

Rh He at the serpent gazed, and it at him;

One through the wound, the other through the mouth

Smoked violently, and the smoke commingled.

Henceforth be silent Lucan, where he mentions

Wretched Sabellus and Nassidius,

And wait to hear what now shall be shot forth.

Be silent Ovid, of Cadmus and Arethusa;

For if him to a snake, her to a fountain,

Converts he fabling, that I grudge him not;

Because two natures never front to front

Has he transmuted, so that both the forms

To interchange their matter ready were.

Together they responded in such wise,

That to a fork the serpent cleft his tail,

And eke the wounded drew his feet together.

The legs together with the thighs themselves

Adhered so, that in little time the juncture

No sign whatever made that was apparent.

He with the cloven tail assumed the figure

The other one was losing, and his skin

Became elastic, and the other's hard.

I saw the arms draw inward at the armpits,

And both feet of the reptile, that were short,

Lengthen as much as those contracted were.