THE PROPHECY OF DANTE.
CANTO THE FIRST.
Once more in Man's frail world! which I had left
So long that 'twas forgotten; and I feel
The weight of day again,—too soon bereft
Of the Immortal Vision which could heal
My earthly sorrows, and to God's own skies
Lift me from that deep Gulf without repeal,
Where late my ears rung with the damnéd cries
Of Souls in hopeless bale; and from that place
Of lesser torment, whence men may arise
Pure from the fire to join the Angelic race;10
Midst whom my own bright Beatricē[1] blessed
My spirit with her light; and to the base
Of the Eternal Triad! first, last, best,[2]
Mysterious, three, sole, infinite, great God!
- ↑ The reader is requested to adopt the Italian pronunciation of Beatrice, sounding all the syllables.
- ↑ [Compare—
"Within the deep and luminous subsistence
Of the High Light appeared to me three circles,
Of threefold colour and of one dimension,
And by the second seemed the first reflected
As Iris is by Iris, and the third
Seemed fire that equally from both is breathed....
O Light Eterne, sole in thyself that dwellest."Paradiso, xxxlii. 115-120, 124 (Longfellow's Translation).]
