The Sculptures on the Pavement. - Ascent to the Second Circle

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CANTO XIII.

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The Second Circle.. -The Envious. — Sapia of Siena

Dante's Dream of Anger. -The Fourth Circle. The Slothful

CANTO XVIII.

Virgil's Discourse of Love. -The Abbot of San Zeno

CANTO XIX.

Dante's Dream of the Siren. -The Fifth Circle.

and Prodigal. - Pope Adrian V.

CANTO XX.

Hugh Capet. The Earthquake.

CANTO XXI.

The Poet Statius.

75

80

85

Buonagiunta da Lucca. Pope Martin IV., and others

110

115

Dante's Sleep upon the Stairway, and his Dream of Leah.
rival at the Terrestrial Paradise

CANTO XXVIII.

125

I

ENTER, and I see thee in the gloom

Of the long aisles, O poet saturnine !

And strive to make my steps keep pace with thine.
The air is filled with some unknown perfume;

The congregation of the dead make room

For thee to pass; the votive tapers shine;

Like rooks that haunt Ravenna's groves of pine The hovering echoes fly from tomb to tomb. From the confessionals I hear arise

Rehearsals of forgotten tragedies,

And lamentations from the crypts below;

And then a voice celestial that begins

With the pathetic words, "Although your sins
As scarlet be," and ends with "as the snow."

WITH

snow-white veil and garments as of flame,
She stands before thee, who so long ago

Filled thy young heart with passion and the woe
From which thy song and all its splendors came;
And while with stern rebuke she speaks thy name,
The ice about thy heart melts as the snow
On mountain heights, and in swift overflow
Comes gushing from thy lips in sobs of shame.
Thou makest full confession; and a gleam,

As of the dawn on some dark forest cast,

Seems on thy lifted forehead to increase; Lethe and Eunoe- the remembered dream

And the forgotten sorrow bring at last

That perfect pardon which is perfect peace.

B