Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v2.djvu/38



HENEVER by delight or else by pain,

That seizes any faculty of ours,

Wholly to that the soul collects itself,

It seemeth that no other power it heeds;

And this against that error is which thinks

One soul above another kindles in us.

And hence, whenever aught is heard or seen

Which keeps the soul intently bent upon it,

Time passes on, and we perceive it not,

Because one faculty is that which listens,

And other that which the soul keeps entire;

This is as if in bonds, and that is free.

Of this I had experience positive

In hearing and in gazing at that spirit;

For fifty full degrees uprisen was

The sun, and I had not perceived it, when

We came to where those souls with one accord

Cried out unto us: "Here is what you ask."