Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/38

18 He said: "By other ways, by other ports

Thou to the shore shalt come, not here, for passage;

A lighter vessel needs must carry thee."

And unto him the Guide: "Vex thee not, Charon;

It is so willed there where is power to do

That which is willed; and farther question not."

Thereat were quieted the fleecy cheeks

Of him the ferryman of the livid fen,

Who round about his eyes had wheels of flame.

But all those souls who weary were and naked

Their color changed and gnashed their teeth together,

As soon as they had heard those cruel words.

God they blasphemed and their progenitors,

The human race, the place, the time, the seed

Of their engendering and of their birth!

Thereafter all together they drew back,

Bitterly weeping, to the accursed shore,

Which waiteth every man who fears not God.

Charon the demon, with the eyes of glede,

Beckoning to them, collects them all together,

Beats with his oar whoever lags behind.

As in the autumn-time the leaves fall off,

First one and then another, till the branch

Unto the earth surrenders all its spoils;