The Divine Comedy

HELL Canto 1 Canto 2 Canto 3 Canto 4 Canto 5 Canto 6 Canto 7 Canto 8 Canto 9 Canto 10 Canto 11 Canto 12 Canto 13 Canto 14 Canto 15 Canto 16 Canto 17 Canto 18 Canto 19 Canto 20 Canto 21 Canto 22 Canto 23 Canto 24 Canto 25 Canto 26 Canto 27 Canto 28 Canto 29 Canto 30 Canto 31 Canto 32 Canto 33 Canto 34

PURGATORY Canto 1 Canto 2 Canto 3 Canto 4 Canto 5 Canto 6 Canto 7 Canto 8 Canto 9 Canto 10 Canto 11 Canto 12 Canto 13 Canto 14 Canto 15 Canto 16 Canto 17 Canto 18 Canto 19 Canto 20 Canto 21 Canto 22 Canto 23 Canto 24 Canto 25 Canto 26 Canto 27 Canto 28 Canto 29 Canto 30 Canto 31 Canto 32 Canto 33

PARADISE Canto 1 Canto 2 Canto 3 Canto 4 Canto 5 Canto 6 Canto 7 Canto 8 Canto 9 Canto 10 Canto 11 Canto 12 Canto 13 Canto 14 Canto 15 Canto 16 Canto 17 Canto 18 Canto 19 Canto 20 Canto 21 Canto 22 Canto 23 Canto 24 Canto 25 Canto 26 Canto 27 Canto 28 Canto 29 Canto 30 Canto 31 Canto 32 Canto 33

In the midway of this our mortal life, I found me in a gloomy wood, astray Gone from the path direct: and e’en to tell It were no easy task, how savage wild That forest, how robust and rough its growth, Which to remember only, my dismay Renews, in bitterness not far from death. Yet to discourse of what there good befell, All else will I relate discover’d there. How first I enter’d it I scarce can say, Such sleepy dullness in that instant weigh’d My senses down, when the true path I left, But when a mountain’s foot I reach’d, where clos’d The valley, that had pierc’d my heart with dread, I look’d aloft, and saw his shoulders broad Already vested with that planet’s beam, Who leads all wanderers safe through every way.

Then was a little respite to the fear, That in my heart’s recesses deep had lain, All of that night, so pitifully pass’d: And as a man, with difficult short breath, Forespent with toiling, ’scap’d from sea to shore, Turns to the perilous wide waste, and stands At gaze; e’en so my spirit, that yet fail’d Struggling with terror, turn’d to view the straits, That none hath pass’d and liv’d. My weary frame After short pause recomforted, again I journey’d on over that lonely steep,

The hinder foot still firmer. Scarce the ascent Began, when, lo! a panther, nimble, light, And cover’d with a speckled skin, appear’d, Nor, when it saw me, vanish’d, rather strove To check my onward going; that ofttimes With purpose to retrace my steps I turn’d.