Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v2.djvu/40

22 Spent with fatigue was I, when I began:

"O my sweet Father! turn thee and behold

How I remain alone, unless thou stay!"

"O son," he said, "up yonder drag thyself,"

Pointing me to a terrace somewhat higher,

Which on that side encircles all the hill.

These words of his so spurred me on, that I

Strained every nerve, behind him scrambling up,

Until the circle was beneath my feet.

Thereon ourselves we seated both of us

Turned to the East, from which we had ascended,

For all men are delighted to look back.

To the low shores mine eyes I first directed,

Then to the sun uplifted them, and wondered

That on the left hand we were smitten by it.

The Poet well perceived that I was wholly

Bewildered at the chariot of the light,

Where 'twixt us and the Aquilon it entered.

Whereon he said to me: "If Castor and Pollux

Were in the company of yonder mirror,

That up and down conducteth with its light,

Thou wouldst behold the zodiac's jagged wheel

Revolving still more near unto the Bears,

Unless it swerved aside from its old track.