Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v2.djvu/39

Rh A greater opening ofttimes hedges up

With but a little forkful of his thorns

The villager, what time the grape imbrowns,

Than was the passage-way through which ascended

Only my Leader and myself behind him,

After that company departed from us.

One climbs Sanleo and descends in Noli,

And mounts the summit of Bismantova,

With feet alone; but here one needs must fly;

With the swift pinions and the plumes I say

Of great desire, conducted after him

Who gave me hope, and made a light for me.

We mounted upward through the rifted rock,

And on each side the border pressed upon us,

And feet and hands the ground beneath required.

When we were come upon the upper rim

Of the high bank, out on the open slope,

"My Master," said I, "what way shall we take?"

And he to me: "No step of thine descend;

Still up the mount behind me win thy way,

Till some sage escort shall appear to us."

The summit was so high it vanquished sight,

And the hillside precipitous far more

Than line from middle quadrant to the centre.