CANTO VIII.

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The Guardian Angels and the Serpent. Nino di Gallura. Currado Ma-

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Dante's Dream of the Siren. · -The Fifth Circle. - The Avaricious and Prod-

III

. 118

125

132

The Sixth Circle.

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The Gluttonous.

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The Mystic Tree

138

Discourse of Statius on Generation. - The Seventh Circle.- The Wanton

CANTO XXVI.

Guido Guinicelli and Arnaldo Daniello

CANTO XXVII.

Dante's Sleep upon the Stairway, and his Dream of Leah. Arrival at the

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Terrestrial Paradise

171

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."

WIT

ITH 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.