Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/43

Rh Not very far as yet our way had gone

This side the summit, when I saw a fire

That overcame a hemisphere of darkness.

We were a little distant from it still,

But not so far that I in part discerned not

That honorable people held that place.

"O thou who honorest every art and science,

Who may these be, which such great honor have,

That from the fashion of the rest it parts them?"

And he to me: "The honorable name,

That sounds of them above there in thy life,

Wins grace in Heaven, that so advances them."

In the mean time a voice was heard by me:

"All honor be to the pre-eminent Poet;

His shade returns again, that was departed."

After the voice had ceased and quiet was,

Four mighty shades I saw approaching us;

Semblance had they nor sorrowful nor glad.

To say to me began my gracious Master:

"Him with that falchion in his hand behold,

Who comes before the three, even as their lord.

That one is Homer, Poet sovereign;

He who comes next is Horace, the satirist;

The third is Ovid, and the last is Lucan.