Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/198



HE many people and the divers wounds

These eyes of mine had so inebriated,

That they were wishful to stand still and weep;

But said Virgilius: "What dost thou still gaze at?

Why is thy sight still riveted down there

Among the mournful, mutilated shades?

Thou hast not done so at the other Bolge;

Consider, if to count them thou believest,

That two-and-twenty miles the valley winds,

And now the moon is underneath our feet;

Henceforth the time allotted us is brief,

And more is to be seen than what thou seest."

"If thou hadst," I made answer thereupon,

"Attended to the cause for which I looked,

Perhaps a longer stay thou wouldst have pardoned."

Meanwhile my Guide departed, and behind him

I went, already making my reply,

And superadding: "In that cavern where