Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v2.djvu/24

6 And he began: "Son, follow thou my steps;

Let us turn back, for on this side declines

The plain unto its lower boundaries."

The dawn was vanquishing the matin hour

Which fled before it, so that from afar

I recognized the trembling of the sea.

Along the solitary plain we went

As one who unto the lost road returns,

And till he finds it seems to go in vain.

As soon as we were come to where the dew

Fights with the sun, and, being in a part

Where shadow falls, little evaporates,

Both of his hands upon the grass outspread

In gentle manner did my Master place;

Whence I, who of his action was aware,

Extended unto him my tearful cheeks;

There did he make in me uncovered wholly

That hue which Hell had covered up in me.

Then came we down upon the desert shore

Which never yet saw navigate its waters

Any that afterward had known return.

There he begirt me as the other pleased;

O marvellous! for even as he culled

The humble plant, such it sprang up again

Suddenly there where he uprooted it.