Flashed up effulgence, as they glided on 'Twixt banks, on either side, painted with spring,
Incredible how fair: and, from the tide, There ever and anon, outstarting, flew Sparkles instinct with life; and in the flowers Did set them, like to rubies chased in gold: Then, as if drunk with odors, plunged again Into the wondrous flood; from which, as one Re-entered, still another rose. "The thirst Of knowledge high, whereby thou art inflamed, To search the meaning of what here thou seest,
The more it warms thee, pleases me the
But first behoves thee of this water drink,
Or e'er that longing be allayed." So spake
The day-star of mine eyes: then thus sub-
"This stream; and these, forth issuing from
And diving back, a living topaz each;
With all this laughter on its bloomy shores;
Are but a preface, shadowy of the truth
They emblem: not that, in themselves, the
things
Are crude; but on thy part is the defect,
For that thy views not yet aspire so high."
Never did babe that had outslept his wont,
Rush, with such eager straining, to the milk,
As I toward the water; bending me,
To make the better mirrors of mine eyes
In the refining wave: and as the eaves
Of mine eyelids did drink of it, forthwith
Seemed it unto me turned from length to
round.
Then as a troop of maskers, when they put
Their vizors off, look other than before;
The counterfeited semblance thrown aside :
So into greater jubilee were changed
Those flowers and sparkles; and distinct I
saw,
Before me, either court of heaven displayed. O prime enlightener! thou who gavest me strength
On the high triumph of thy realm to gaze; Grant virtue now to utter what I kenned.
There is in heaven a light, whose goodly shine
Makes the Creator visible to all
Created, that in seeing him alone
Have peace; and in a circle spreads so far,
That the circumference were too loose a zone
To girdle in the sun. All is one beam,
Reflected from the summit of the first,
That moves, which being hence and vigor
takes.
And as some cliff, that from the bottom eyes
His image mirrored in the crystal flood,
As if to admire his brave apparelling
Of verdure and of flowers; so, round about,
Eying the light, on more than million thrones,
Stood, eminent, whatever from our earth
Has to the skies returned. How wide the
leaves,
Extended to their utmost, of this rose,
Whose lowest step embosoms such a space
Of ample radiance! Yet, nor amplitude
Nor height impeded, but my view with ease
Took in the full dimensions of that joy.
Near or remote, what there avails, where God
Immediate rules, and Nature, awed, suspends
Her sway?
The poet expatiates on the glorious vision of the saints. On looking round for Beatrice, he finds that she has left him, and that an old man is at his side. This proves to be Saint Bernard, who shows him that Beatrice has returned to her throne.
IN fashion, as a snow white rose, lay then
Before my view the saintly multitude,
Which in his own blood Christ espoused.
That other host, that soar aloft to gaze
And celebrate his glory, whom they love,
Hovered around; and, like a troop of bees,
Amid the vernal sweets alighting now,
Now, clustering, where their fragrant labor
glows,
Flew downward to the mighty flower, or
From the redundant petals, streaming back
Unto the stedfast dwelling of their joy.
Faces had they of flame, and wings of gold:
The rest was whiter than the driven snow;
And, as they flitted down into the flower,
From range to range, fanning their plumy
loins,
Whispered the peace and ardor, which they
From that soft winnowing. Shadow none,
the
vast
Interposition of such numerous flight
Cast, from above, upon the flower, or view
Obstructed aught. For, through the universe,
Wherever merited, celestial light
Glides freely, and no obstacle prevents.
All there, who reign in safety and in bliss, Ages long past or new, on one sole mark Their love and vision fixed. O trinal beam Of individual star, that charm`st them thus ! Vouchsafe one glance to gild our storm below. If the grim brood, from Arctic shores that roamed
(Where Helice forever, as she wheels, Sparkles a mother's fondness on her son), Stood in mute wonder mid the works of Rome,
When to their view the Lateran arose
In greatness more than earthly; I, who then
From human to divine had passed, from time
Unto eternity, and out of Florence
To justice and to truth, how might I chuse
But marvel too? 'Twixt gladness and amaze,
In sooth, no will had I to utter aught,
Or hear. And, as a pilgrim, when he rests
Within the temple of his vow, looks round
In breathless awe, and hopes some time to tell
Of all its goodly state; e'en so mine eyes
Coursed up and down along the living light,
Now low, and now aloft, and now around,
Visiting every step. Looks I beheld,
Where charity in soft persuasion sat;
Smiles from within, and radiance from above;
And, in each gesture, grace and honor high.
So roved my ken, and in its general form
All Paradise surveyed.
THE TRIUNE GOD.
In that abyss
Of radiance, clear and lofty, seemed, me-
thought,
Three orbs of triple hue, clipt in one bound:
And, from another, one reflected seemed,
As rainbow is from rainbow: and the third
Seemed fire, breathed equally from both. 0
speech!
How feeble and how faint art thou, to give
Conception birth! Yet this to what I saw
Is less than little. O eternal light !
Sole in thyself that dwell'st; and of thyself
Sole understood, past, present, or to come;
Thou smiledst, on that circling, which in
thee
Seemed as reflected splendor, while I mused;
For I therein, methought, in its own hue
Beheld our image painted: stedfastly
I therefore pored upon the view. As one, Who, versed in geometric lore, would fain Measure the circle; and, though pondering long
And deeply, that beginning, which he needs, Finds not: e'en such was I, intent to scan The novel wonder, and trace out the form, How to the circle fitted, and therein
How placed: but the flight was not for my wing:
Had not a flash darted athwart my mind, And, in the spleen, unfolded what it sought.
Here vigor failed the towering fantasy: But yet the will rolled onward, like a wheel In even motion, by the love impelled, That moves the sun in heaven and all the stars!
|