NOTE. The portrait prefixed to this volume is from an engrav
ing on steel by J. A. J. Wilcox, after a photograph taken about
1879.

I LIFT mine eyes, and all the windows blaze

With forms of Saints and holy men who died,
Here martyred and hereafter glorified;
And the great Rose upon its leaves displays
Christ's Triumph, and the angelic roundelays,
With splendor upon splendor multiplied;
And Beatrice again at Dante's side

No more rebukes, but smiles her words of praise. And then the organ sounds, and unseen choirs

Sing the old Latin hymns of peace and love
And benedictions of the Holy Ghost;

And the melodious bells among the spires

O'er all the house-tops and through heaven above
Proclaim the elevation of the Host!

O STAR of morning and of liberty!

O bringer of the light, whose splendor shines
Above the darkness of the Apennines,

Forerunner of the day that is to be!

The voices of the city and the sea,

The voices of the mountains and the pines,
Repeat thy song, till the familiar lines
Are footpaths for the thought of Italy!
Thy fame is blown abroad from all the heights,
Through all the nations, and a sound is heard,
As of a mighty wind, and men devout,
Strangers of Rome, and the new proselytes,

In their own language hear thy wondrous word,
And many are amazed and many doubt.

PARADISO

CANTO I.

THE glory of Him who moveth everything
Doth penetrate the universe, and shine
In one part more and in another less.
Within that heaven which most his light receives
Was I, and things beheld which to repeat
Nor knows, nor can, who from above descends;
Because in drawing near to its desire
Our intellect ingulphs itself so far,
That after it the memory cannot go.
Truly whatever of the holy realm

I had the power to treasure in my mind
Shall now become the subject of my song.

O good Apollo, for this last emprise

Make of me such a vessel of thy power

As giving the beloved laurel asks!

One summit of Parnassus hitherto

Has been enough for me, but now with both
I needs must enter the arena left.

Enter into my bosom, thou, and breathe

10

15

As at the time when Marsyas thou didst draw 20 Out of the scabbard of those limbs of his. O power divine, lend'st thou thyself to me So that the shadow of the blessed realm