Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/179

Then sorrowed I, and sorrow now again,
When I direct my mind to what I saw, 20
And more my genius curb than I am wont,
That it may run not unless virtue guide it;
So that if some good star, or better thing,
Have given me good, I may myself not grudge it.
As many as the hind (who on the hill 25
Rests at the time when he who lights the world
His countenance keeps least concealed from us,
Whileas the fly gives place unto the gnat)
Seeth the glow-worms down along the valley,
Perchance there where he ploughs and makes his vintage;
With flames as manifold resplendent all 31
Was the eighth Bolgia, as I grew aware
As soon as I was where the depth appeared.
And such as he who with the bears avenged him
Beheld Elijah's chariot at departing, 35
What time the steeds to heaven erect uprose,
For with his eye he could not follow it
So as to see aught else than flame alone,
Even as a little cloud ascending upward,
Thus each along the gorge of the intrenchment 40
Was moving; for not one reveals the theft,
And every flame a sinner steals away.