Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/94



OT yet had Nessus reached the other side,

When we had put ourselves within a wood,

That was not marked by any path whatever.

Not foliage green, but of a dusky color,

Not branches smooth, but gnarled and intertangled,

Not apple-trees were there, but thorns with poison.

Such tangled thickets have not, nor so dense,

Those savage wild-beasts, that in hatred hold

'Twixt Cecina and Corneto the tilled places.

There do the hideous Harpies make their nests,

Who chased the Trojans from the Strophades,

With sad announcement of impending doom;

Broad wings have they, and necks and faces human,

And feet with claws, and their great bellies fledged;

They make laments upon the wondrous trees.

And the good Master: "Ere thou enter farther,

Know that thou art within the second round,"

Thus he began to say, "and shalt be, till