Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/179

Rh Then sorrowed I, and sorrow now again,

When I direct my mind to what I saw,

And more my genius curb than I am wont,

That it may run not unless virtue guide it;

So that if some good star, or better thing,

Have given me good, I may myself not grudge it.

As many as the hind (who on the hill

Rests at the time when he who lights the world

His countenance keeps least concealed from us,

Whileas the fly gives place unto the gnat)

Seeth the glow-worms down along the valley,

Perchance there where he ploughs and makes his vintage;

With flames as manifold resplendent all

Was the eighth Bolgia, as I grew aware

As soon as I was where the depth appeared.

And such as he who with the bears avenged him

Beheld Elijah's chariot at departing,

What time the steeds to heaven erect uprose,

For with his eye he could not follow it

So as to see aught else than flame alone,

Even as a little cloud ascending upward,

Thus each along the gorge of the intrenchment

Was moving; for not one reveals the theft,

And every flame a sinner steals away.