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The Divina Commedia and Canzoniere: Purgatory
The Divina Commedia and Canzoniere Purgatory Author:Dante Alighieri Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: E'en as the doves who through the meadows stray, Gathering or grain or darnel tranquilly, las And not a whit their wonted pride display, If aught they see ... more »which them doth terrify, Will of a sudden cease to seek their food, Because a greater care constrains to fly, So saw I then that newly gathered brood, ISO Cease from the song and flee towards the hill, As one who goes, nor knows the goal pursued; Nor moved we onward with less eager will. CANTO III The Journey to the Mountain of Cleansing—The Souls that wait—The excommunicated Manfred And then, albeit that their sudden flight Had scattered them through all the wide champaign, Turned to the Mount where leadeth Reason right, I to my comrade true drew close again; And how should I without him e'er have gone? Who up that mountain would my steps have ta'en; He seemed to me within himself to groan. O Conscience truly noble, pure, and chaste, How keen the pangs by thee for small ills known! And when his feet had laid aside the haste 10 Which robs each gesture of its dignity, My mind, till then within itself embraced, 125 As in //. v. 82, so here, doves furnish the poet with the precise illustration which he needs. Comp. Par. xxv. 19. 132 Reproduced from V. N. c. 13, not perhaps without a reminiscence of Heh. xi. 8. The act of self-surrender to the discipline of purification is one of the ventures of faith. 3 " Reason " is probably that of the human soul purified by Divine grace. 4 The sense of companionship and guidance is as strong as ever. But what causes Virgil's haste and remorse ? Does human wisdom, sympathising with affection, regret that it had allowed the memories of past days to interfere with the disciple's progress, so as to incur the reproach of the more Took wi...« less