Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/182

162 From Circe had departed, who concealed me

More than a year there near unto Gaëta,

Or ever yet Æneas named it so,

Nor fondness for my son, nor reverence

For my old father, nor the due affection

Which joyous should have made Penelope,

Could overcome within me the desire

I had to be experienced of the world,

And of the vice and virtue of mankind;

But I put forth on the high open sea

With one sole ship, and that small company

By which I never had deserted been.

Both of the shores I saw as far as Spain,

Far as Morocco, and the isle of Sardes,

And the others which that sea bathes round about.

I and my company were old and slow

When at that narrow passage we arrived

Where Hercules his landmarks set as signals,

That man no farther onward should adventure.

On the right hand behind me left I Seville,

And on the other already had left Ceuta.

'O brothers, who amid a hundred thousand

Perils,' I said, 'have come unto the West,

To this so inconsiderable vigil