Inferno

by Dante Alighieri

He will not life support By earth nor its base metals, but by love, Wisdom, and virtue;

"Thy soul is by vile fear assail'd, which oft So overcasts a man, that he recoils From noblest resolution, like a beast At some false semblance in the twilight gloom. That from this terror thou mayst free thyself,

Those things alone Are to be fear'd whence evil may proceed; None else, for none are terrible beside. I am so fram'd by God, thanks to his grace! That any suff'rance of your misery Touches me not, nor flame of that fierce fire Assails me.

"All hope abandon, ye who enter here."

"This miserable fate Suffer the wretched souls of those, who liv'd Without or praise or blame, with that ill band Of angels mix'd, who nor rebellious prov'd Nor yet were true to God, but for themselves Were only.

These of death No hope may entertain: and their blind life So meanly passes, that all other lots They envy. Fame of them the world hath none, Nor suffers; mercy and justice scorn them both.

"Only so far afflicted, that we live Desiring without hope."

"No greater grief than to remember days Of joy, when mis'ry is at hand!

for what a man Takes from himself it is not just he have.

Here pity most doth show herself alive, When she is dead.

Toward their leader for a signal looking, Which he with sound obscene triumphant gave.

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