{"product_id":"2940012363138","title":"THE VISION OF HELL, PURGATORY, AND PARADISE","description":"HELL\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCantos 1 - 34\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCANTO I\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIN the midway of this our mortal life,\u003cbr\u003eI found me in a gloomy wood, astray\u003cbr\u003eGone from the path direct: and e'en to tell\u003cbr\u003eIt were no easy task, how savage wild\u003cbr\u003eThat forest, how robust and rough its growth,\u003cbr\u003eWhich to remember only, my dismay\u003cbr\u003eRenews, in bitterness not far from death.\u003cbr\u003eYet to discourse of what there good befell,\u003cbr\u003eAll else will I relate discover'd there.\u003cbr\u003eHow first I enter'd it I scarce can say,\u003cbr\u003eSuch sleepy dullness in that instant weigh'd\u003cbr\u003eMy senses down, when the true path I left,\u003cbr\u003eBut when a mountain's foot I reach'd, where clos'd\u003cbr\u003eThe valley, that had pierc'd my heart with dread,\u003cbr\u003eI look'd aloft, and saw his shoulders broad\u003cbr\u003eAlready vested with that planet's beam,\u003cbr\u003eWho leads all wanderers safe through every way.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThen was a little respite to the fear,\u003cbr\u003eThat in my heart's recesses deep had lain,\u003cbr\u003eAll of that night, so pitifully pass'd:\u003cbr\u003eAnd as a man, with difficult short breath,\u003cbr\u003eForespent with toiling, 'scap'd from sea to shore,\u003cbr\u003eTurns to the perilous wide waste, and stands\u003cbr\u003eAt gaze; e'en so my spirit, that yet fail'd\u003cbr\u003eStruggling with terror, turn'd to view the straits,\u003cbr\u003eThat none hath pass'd and liv'd.  My weary frame\u003cbr\u003eAfter short pause recomforted, again\u003cbr\u003eI journey'd on over that lonely steep,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe hinder foot still firmer.  Scarce the ascent\u003cbr\u003eBegan, when, lo! a panther, nimble, light,\u003cbr\u003eAnd cover'd with a speckled skin, appear'd,\u003cbr\u003eNor, when it saw me, vanish'd, rather strove\u003cbr\u003eTo check my onward going; that ofttimes\u003cbr\u003eWith purpose to retrace my steps I turn'd.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe hour was morning's prime, and on his way\u003cbr\u003eAloft the sun ascended with those stars,\u003cbr\u003eThat with him rose, when Love divine first mov'd\u003cbr\u003eThose its fair works: so that with joyous hope\u003cbr\u003eAll things conspir'd to fill me, the gay skin\u003cbr\u003eOf that swift animal, the matin dawn\u003cbr\u003eAnd the sweet season.  Soon that joy was chas'd,\u003cbr\u003eAnd by new dread succeeded, when in view\u003cbr\u003eA lion came, 'gainst me, as it appear'd,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith his head held aloft and hunger-mad,\u003cbr\u003eThat e'en the air was fear-struck.  A she-wolf\u003cbr\u003eWas at his heels, who in her leanness seem'd\u003cbr\u003eFull of all wants, and many a land hath made\u003cbr\u003eDisconsolate ere now.  She with such fear\u003cbr\u003eO'erwhelmed me, at the sight of her appall'd,\u003cbr\u003eThat of the height all hope I lost.  As one,\u003cbr\u003eWho with his gain elated, sees the time\u003cbr\u003eWhen all unwares is gone, he inwardly\u003cbr\u003eMourns with heart-griping anguish; such was I,\u003cbr\u003eHaunted by that fell beast, never at peace,\u003cbr\u003eWho coming o'er against me, by degrees\u003cbr\u003eImpell'd me where the sun in silence rests.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhile to the lower space with backward step\u003cbr\u003eI fell, my ken discern'd the form one of one,\u003cbr\u003eWhose voice seem'd faint through long disuse of speech.\u003cbr\u003eWhen him in that great desert I espied,\u003cbr\u003e\"Have mercy on me!\" cried I out aloud,\u003cbr\u003e\"Spirit! or living man! what e'er thou be!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe answer'd: \"Now not man, man once I was,\u003cbr\u003eAnd born of Lombard parents, Mantuana both\u003cbr\u003eBy country, when the power of Julius yet\u003cbr\u003eWas scarcely firm.  At Rome my life was past\u003cbr\u003eBeneath the mild Augustus, in the time\u003cbr\u003eOf fabled deities and false.  A bard\u003cbr\u003eWas I, and made Anchises' upright son\u003cbr\u003eThe subject of my song, who came from Troy,\u003cbr\u003eWhen the flames prey'd on Ilium's haughty towers.\u003cbr\u003eBut thou, say wherefore to such perils past\u003cbr\u003eReturn'st thou?  wherefore not this pleasant mount\u003cbr\u003eAscendest, cause and source of all delight?\"\u003cbr\u003e\"And art thou then that Virgil, that well-spring,\u003cbr\u003eFrom which such copious floods of eloquence\u003cbr\u003eHave issued?\"  I with front abash'd replied.\u003cbr\u003e\"Glory and light of all the tuneful train!\u003cbr\u003eMay it avail me that I long with zeal\u003cbr\u003eHave sought thy volume, and with love immense\u003cbr\u003eHave conn'd it o'er.  My master thou and guide!\u003cbr\u003eThou he from whom alone I have deriv'd\u003cbr\u003eThat style, which for its beauty into fame\u003cbr\u003eExalts me.  See the beast, from whom I fled.\u003cbr\u003eO save me from her, thou illustrious sage!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"For every vein and pulse throughout my frame\u003cbr\u003eShe hath made tremble.\"  He, soon as he saw\u003cbr\u003eThat I was weeping, answer'd, \"Thou must needs\u003cbr\u003eAnother way pursue, if thou wouldst 'scape\u003cbr\u003eFrom out that savage wilderness.  This beast,\u003cbr\u003eAt whom thou criest, her way will suffer none\u003cbr\u003eTo pass, and no less hindrance makes than death:\u003cbr\u003eSo bad and so accursed in her kind,\u003cbr\u003eThat never sated is her ravenous will,\u003cbr\u003eStill after food more craving than before.\u003cbr\u003eTo many an animal in wedlock vile\u003cbr\u003eShe fastens, and shall yet to many more,\u003cbr\u003eUntil that greyhound come, who shall destroy\u003cbr\u003eHer with sharp pain.  He will not life support\u003cbr\u003eBy earth nor its base metals, but by love,\u003cbr\u003eWisdom, and virtue, and his land shall be\u003cbr\u003eThe land 'twixt either Feltro.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47168598147312,"sku":"2940012363138","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012363138_p0.jpg?v=1763567995","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012363138","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}