Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/27



AY was departing, and the embrowned air

Released the animals that are on earth

From their fatigues; and I the only one

Made myself ready to sustain the war,

Both of the way and likewise of the woe,

Which memory that errs not shall retrace.

O Muses, O high genius, now assist me!

O memory, that didst write down what I saw,

Here thy nobility shall be manifest!

And I began: "Poet, who guidest me,

Regard my manhood, if it be sufficient,

Ere to the arduous pass thou dost confide me.

Thou sayest, that of Silvius the parent,

While yet corruptible, unto the world

Immortal went, and was there bodily.

But if the adversary of all evil

Was courteous, thinking of the high effect

That issue would from him, and who, and what,