Classic Poem

CANTO III

T HROUGH ME THE WAY IS TO THE C ITY OF W OE :
T HROUGH ME THE WAY INTO THE ETERNAL PAIN ;
T HROUGH ME THE WAY AMONG THE LOST BELOW .
R IGHTEOUSNESS DID MY MAKER ON HIGH CONSTRAIN .
M E DID DIVINE Authority UPREAR ;
M E SUPREME W ISDOM AND PRIMAL L OVE SUSTAIN .
B EFORE I WAS, NO THINGS CREATED WERE
S AVE THE ETERNAL, AND I ETERNAL ABIDE .
R ELINQUISH ALL HOPE, YE WHO ENTER HERE .
These words, of a dim colour, I espied
Written above the lintel of a door.
Whereat: " Master, the sense is hard, " I cried.
And he, as one experienced in that lore:
" Here all misgiving must thy mind reject.
Here cowardice must die and be no more.
We are come to the place I told thee to expect,
Where thou shouldst see the people whom pain stings
And who have lost the good of the intellect. "
His hand on mine, to uphold my falterings,
With looks of cheer that bade me comfort keep,
He led me on into the secret things.
Here lamentation, groans, and wailings deep
Reverberated through the starless air,
So that it made me at the beginning weep.
Uncouth tongues, horrible shriekings of despair,
Shrill and faint voices, cries of pain and rage,
And, with it all, smiting of hands, were there,
Making a tumult, nothing could assuage,
To swirl in the air that knows not day or night,
Like sand within the whirlwind's eddying cage.
And I, whose mind failed to discern aright,
Said: " Master, what is it that my ear affrays?
Who are these that seem so crushed beneath their plight? "
And he to me: " These miserable ways
The forlorn spirits endure of those who spent
Life without infamy and without praise.
They are mingled with that caitiff regiment
Of the angels, who rebelled not, yet avowed
To God no loyalty, on themselves intent.
Heaven chased them forth, lest their allegiance cloud
Its beauty, and the deep Hell refuses them,
For, beside such, the sinner would be proud. "
And I: " Master, what is the grief extreme
Which makes them so their fortune execrate? "
He answered: " Brief words best their case beseem.
They have no hope of death: and their estate
Is so abased in the blind life they own
That they are envious of all others' fate.
Report of them the world permitteth none.
Mercy and Justice have them in disdain.
Let us not talk of them. Look, and pass on. "
I, who looked, beheld a banner all a-strain,
Which moved, and, as it moved, so quickly spun
That never a respite it appeared to deign.
And after it I saw so many run,
I had not believed, they seemed so numberless,
That Death so great a legion had undone.
When I had marked some few among the press,
I chanced the shade of him to recognize
Who made the great refusal, from meanness.
Forthwith I was assured, and knew mine eyes
Looked of a truth on the abject crew that were
Odious to God and to his enemies.
These paltry, who never were alive, were bare
As to the body, and all about were stung
By stings of the wasps and hornets that were there.
Because of these, blood, from their faces sprung,
Was mingled with their tears and flowed to feast
The loathly worms about their feet that clung.
Then as my peering eyes made further quest,
I saw folk on the shore of a great stream.
" Master, " I said, " make to me manifest
Who these are and what habit mureth them
Willingly to pass over and be gone,
If rightly I can discern by the faint gleam. "
And he to me: " The things shall all be known
To thy understanding when our steps are stayed
Upon the mournful shores of Acheron. "
Casting abashed eyes downward, and afraid
Lest that my words should some offence have wrought,
I ceased from speech until the stream we made.
And toward us lo! arriving in a boat
An Ancient, white with hair upon him old,
Crying, " Woe to you, ye spirits misbegot!
Hope not that heaven ye ever shall behold.
I come to carry you to yon shore, and lead
Into the eternal darkness, heat and cold.
And thou who art there, a living spirit, with speed
Get hence, nor with these who are dead delay " —
But when he noted that I took no heed,
He said: " By another ferry, another way
Of entrance must thou seek to pass, not here.
Needs must a lighter vessel thee convey. "
My Guide to him: " Charon, thy frowns forbear.
Thus is this thing willed there, where what is willed
Can be accomplished. Further question spare. "
Then were the shaggy cheeks from trouble stilled
Of that old steersman on the livid fen
Around whose eyes flames in a circle wheeled.
But those forlorn and naked spirits of men
Changed colour, chattering with their teeth, all numb,
Soon as the harsh words sounded in their ken.
They blasphemed God, blasphemed their mother's womb,
The human kind, the place, the time, the seed
Of their engendering, and their birth and doom;
Then weeping all together in their sad need
Betook themselves to the accursed shore
Which awaits each who of God takes no heed.
Charon, the demon, beckoning before,
With eyes of glowing coal, assembles all:
Whoever lags, he beats him with his oar.
And as the late leaves of November fall
One after one till on the earthen floor
The ruined bough looks on their funeral,
So by that river Adam's seed impure
Cast themselves from the wharf, one after one,
At signals, as the bird goes to the lure.
Thus are they borne across the water dun;
And ere they disembark on the far strand
On this another gathering is begun.
" Son, " said the courteous Master, " understand
That all those who have died in the anger of God
Congregate hither out of every land.
And they are prompt to pass over the flood,
For Divine Justice pricketh in them so
That fear is changed to longing in their blood.
By this way no good spirit is seen to go.
Therefore if Charon doth of thee complain,
What his words mean thou easily may'st know. "
When he had ended, the whole shadowy plain
Shuddered so strongly, that the terror past
Still at the memory bathes me in sweat again.
Out of the tear-drenched earth came forth a blast
That made a crimson light before me leap
And numbness over all my senses cast.
And I fell, like to one seized with a sleep.