Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/55

Rh Howl the rain maketh them like unto dogs;

One side they make a shelter for the other;

Oft turn themselves the wretched reprobates.

When Cerberus perceived us, the great worm!

His mouths he opened, and displayed his tusks;

Not a limb had he that was motionless.

And my Conductor, with his spans extended,

Took of the earth, and with his fists well filled,

He threw it into those rapacious gullets.

Such as that dog is, who by barking craves,

And quiet grows soon as his food he gnaws,

For to devour it he but thinks and struggles,

The like became those muzzles filth-begrimed

Of Cerberus the demon, who so thunders

Over the souls that they would fain be deaf.

We passed across the shadows, which subdues

The heavy rain-storm, and we placed our feet

Upon their vanity that person seems.

They all were lying prone upon the earth,

Excepting one, who sat upright as soon

As he beheld us passing on before him.

"O thou that art conducted through this Hell,"

He said to me, "recall me, if thou canst;

Thyself wast made before I was unmade."