The Inferno of Dante Alighieri 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: CANTO IV. Argument.— The first circle of Hell—Limbo— Meeting of the Poets, and enumeration of the Ancient Worthies here seen by Dante. On the dead trance t... more »hat held my senses broke Sudden a mighty thunder, that in doubt I shook myself, like one by force awoke; And, starting to my feet, on all without Bent steady gaze with eye refreshed by sleep, If haply thus to learn my whereabout. Sooth is, I found me on the bordering steep Of dolorous £.byss, which vents the din Of countless shrieks in one wild thunder-sweep. Dark, deep it was, and clouded thick within, That with down-searching eyes and straining sense, Assured sight of nothing might I win. " Now low to lower in yon blind immense Plunge we," the bard began, all changed to pale, " I will be first, and be thou second hence." And I, who marked his wonted colour quail, Answered, " How might I venture, thou being shaken, That ever art my stay when doubts assail ?" But he—" Their anguish, that of hope forsaken Lie there, doth on my lineaments pourtray Pity, by thee for coward.fear mistaken. Then come, the road is long, nor brooks delay." He spake, and moved, and through the foremost zone That cinctures Hell's abyss, he led the way. Here never aught of louder plaint or moan Disturbed the listener's hearing; but the air - Trembled eternally with sighs alone. The cause, a grief where torment hath no share, Endured of crowded hostings not a few, Men, women, infants, all assembled there. And thus the good preceptor—" Canst thou view So vast a throng, nor ask of whom the spirits ? I will thou learn, ere we our path pursue, These were not sinners; yet, whate'er their merits, Suffice not them, wanting baptismal rite, That each partaker of thy faith inherits. And if they...« less