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Do not ask, Reader, how my blood ran cold
and my voice choked up with fear. I cannot write it:
this is a terror that cannot be told.

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When I heard my Master raise his voice to me,
I wheeled about with such a start of shame
that I grow pale yet at the memory

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I saw it there: I seem to see it still-
a body without a head, that moved along
like all the others in the stew and spill

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My lungs were pumping as if they could not stop;
I thought I could not go on, and I sat exausted
The instant I had clambered to the top.

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if my days above won favor in your eyes, if I have earned however much or little of your love in writing my High Verses, do not pass by, but let one of you be pleased to tell where he, having disappeared from the known world, went to die.

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And whatever violence you see done to me,
you have no cause to fear. I know these matters:
I have been through this once and come back safely.

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"I saw-the dread of it haunts me to this day-
one linger a bit too long, as it sometimes happens
one frog remains when another spurts away:
and Catclaw, who was nearest, ran a hook
through the sinner's pitchy hair and hauled him in"

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"And were it not that I am still constrained
by the reverence I owe to the Great Keys
you held in life, I should not have refrained
from using other words and sharper still:"

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A Angry Baby meme. Caption your own images or memes with our Meme Generator.

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O Sovereign Wisdom, how Thine art doth shine
in Heaven, on Earth, and in the Evil World!
How justly doth Thy power judge and assign!

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Tell me if courtesy and valor raise
Their banners in our city as of old,
Or has the glory fade from its days?

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In spite of the burnt crust, and bending near to put my face closer to his, at last I answered: "Ser Brunetto, are you here?"

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And I, when he stretched out his arm to me,
searched his baked features closely, till at last
I traced his image from my memory

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It is written in your stars, and will come to pass,
that your honours shall make both sides hunger for you:
but the goat shall never reach to crop that grass.

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My Teacher heard their cries,  and turning-to,
stood face to face, "Do as they ask," he said,
"for these are souls to whom respect is due;

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What you have told me of my course, I write
by another text I save to show a Lady
who will judge these matters, if I reach her height.

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For that sweet image, gentle and paternal,
you were to me in the world when hour by hour
you taught me how man makes himself eternal.

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Returned, I found my Guide already mounted
upon the top of that monstrosity.
He said to me: "Now must you be undaunted:
this best must be our stairway to the pit

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Then he called "Now Geryon we are ready"
Bear well in mind that his is living weight
And make your circles wide and your flight steady.

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when a company of shades came into sight
walking beside the bank. They stared at us
as men at evening by the new moon's light

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As we went on, one face in that procession
caught my eye and I said: "That sinner there:
It is certainly not the first time I've seen that one."

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Puzzled, I raised my hand a bit and slowly
broke off a branchlet from an enormous thorn:
and the great trunk of it cried: "Why do you break me?"

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words and blood together, gout by gout.
Startled, I dropped the branch that I was holding
and stood transfixed by fear, half turned about

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We drew near those swift beasts. In a thoughtful pause
Chiron drew an arrow, and with its notch
he pushed his great beard back along his jaws.

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Like those Alexander me that in the hot regions
of India, flames rainin from the sky
to fall still unextinguished on his legions:

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Puzzled, I raised my hand a bit and slowly broke off a branchlet from an enormous thorn: and the great trunk of it cried: "Why do you break me?

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in the jousts of Toppo." And suddenly in his rush,
perhaps it was because his breath was failing him,
he hid himself inside a thorny bush
and cowered among its leaves.

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so danced to Minotaur, and my shrewd Guide
cried out: "Run now! While he is blind with rage!
Into the pass, quick, and get over the side!"

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Then people saw I, who from out the river
Lifted their heads and also all the chest;
And many among these I recognized. 123

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Men we were, and now we are changed to sticks;
well might your hand have been more merciful
were we no more than souls of lice and ticks."

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Clearly he was a messenger from God's Throne, and i turned to my guide; but he made me a sign that I should keep my silence and bow down.

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Clearly he was a messenger from God's Throne, and i turned to my guide; but he made me a sign that I should keep my silence and bow down.

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https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/79/ce/8b/79ce8b5a74cb59524b55d39babeedfa2.jpg

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Line 16-18
My son" He began "there are below this wall three smaller circles, each in its degree
Like those you are about to leave and all

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Malice is the sin most hated by god.
And the aim of mailuce is to injure others
Whether by fraud or violence.
Translation: Violence and fraud are the worst sins because they affect other people as well as the sinner, and hurts others as well.

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"And all together screamed, lookin down at me: 'Call Medusa that we may change him to stone! Too lightly we let Theseus go free.'

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Against God, self, and neighbor is violence shown. Against their persons and their goods, I say, as you shall hear set forth with open reason.

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We came to the edge of an enormous sink
rimmed by a circle of great broken boulders
Here we found ghastlier gangs. And here the stink

thrown up by the abyss so overpowered us
that we drew back, cowering behind the wall
of one of the great tombs; and standing thus,

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Then he turned back to the same filthy tide
by which he had come. He did not speak to us,
but went his way like one preoccupied

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Clearly he was a Messenger from God's Throne,
and I turned to my Guide; but he made me a sign
that I should keep my silence and bow down.

Translation:

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So many you understand that all we know
Will be dead forever and from that day and hour
When the portal of the future is swung to

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You seem to see in advance all time's intent.
if I have heard and understood correctly;
but you seem to lack all knowledge of the present."

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It had raised itself,
I think, upon its knees, and it looked around me
as if expecting to find through that black air
that blew around me, another traveler.
And weeping when it found no other there

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And turning to that carnival of bloat cried:
"Peace, you wolf of hell. Choke back your bile and let its venom blister your own throat."

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"Do not be startled, for no power of his, however he may lord it over the damned, may hinder your descent through this abyss."

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"Papa Satán, Papa Satàn, aleppy."
Plutus clicked and shuttered in his rage; and my all knowing Guide, to comfort me: "Do not be startled"

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So the sweet Guide and Father leaves me here,
And I stay on in doubt with yes and no
Dividing all my heart to hope and fear

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And crossing over to the chasm's edge
we came to a spring that boiled and overflowed
through a great crevice worn into the ledge

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Lines 103-105
wait here and feed your soul while I am gone
on comfort and good hope;I will not leave you
to wander in this underworld alone

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While we were running through the dead canal,
Uprose in front of me one full of mire,
And said, " Who 'rt thou that comest ere the hour?"

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I could not hear my Lord's words, but the pack
that gathered round him suddenly broke away
howling and jostling and went pouring back,

slamming the towering gate hard in his face.
That great Soul stood alone outside the wall.
Then he came back; his pain showed in his pace.

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No twanging bowstring ever shot an arrow
that bored the air it rode dead to the mark
more swiftly than the flying skiff whose prow
shot toward us over the polluted channel

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he may go back along the same fool's way
he came by. Let him try his living luck.
You who are dead can only come to stay.

Translation:

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Wait here and feed your soul while I am gone
on comfort and good hope; I will not leave you
to wander in this underworld alone.

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Lines 4-6
There minos sits, grinning, grotesque, and hale. He examines each lost soul as it arrives and delivers his verdict with his coiling tail.

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"Watch them. When they pass,
call to them in the name of love that drives
and damns them here. In that name they will pause."

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"that grim sorter of the dark and foul decided which place in Hell shall be its end, then wraps his twitching tail about himself one coil for each degree it must descend."

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"that grim sorter of the dark and foul decided which place in Hell shall be its end, then wraps his twitching tail about himself one coil for each degree it must descend."

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Here the monstrous Cerberus the ravening beast
Howls through his triple throats like a mad dog
Over the spirits sunk in that foul paste

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They turned and welcomed me most graciously,
At which I saw my approving Master smile.
And they honored me far beyoned courtesy,
For they included me in their own number

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And they honored me far beyond courtesy,
for they included me in their own number,
making me sixth in that high company.

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Here monstrous Cerberus, the raveninf beast,
howls through his triple throats like a mad dog
over the spirits sunk in that foul place

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The other is Dido; faithless to the ashes
of Sichaeus, she killed herself for love.
The next whom the eternal tempest lashes

is sense-drugged Cleopatra. See Helen there,
from whom such ill arose. And great Achilles,
who fought at last with love in the house of prayer.

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the other spirit, who stood by her, wept
so piteously, I felt my senses reel
and faint away with anguish. I was swept

by such a swoon as death is, and I fell,
as a corpse might fall, to the dead floor of Hell.

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A monstrous clap of thunder broke apart
the swoon that stuffed my head; like one awakened
by violent hands, I leaped up with a start.

And having arisen; rested and renewed,
I studied out the landmarks of the gloom
to find my bearings there as best I could.
Translation:

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Thus descended out of the first circle 1
Down to the second, that less space begirds,
And so much greater dole, that goads to wailing

Always before him many of them stand;  13
They go by turns each one unto the judgment;
They speak, and hear, and then are downward hurled.

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And turning to that carnival of bloat
cried: "Peace, you Wolf of Hell. Choke back your bile
and let its venom blister your own throat."

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Dost not hear his cries? Canst thou not see the death he wrestles with beside that river no ocean can surpass for rage and fury?

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Original tercet:
The tear-soaked ground gave out a sigh of wind that spewed itself in flame on a red sky, and all my shattered senses left me. Blind,

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She brought such heaviness upon my spirit
at sight of her savagery and desperation
I died from every hope of that high summit

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Original tercet: Midway in our life's journey, I went astray
from the straight road and woke to find myself
alone in a dark wood. How shall I say

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Original Tercet:
MIDWAY upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straight forward pathway had been lost.

Commentary: In this tercet, Dante talks about his journey of life as a dark forest and the straight forward (right road). Christians believe the dark forest to be, "individuals personal fears." Christians also believe that "right road" means totally confidence in God and having without reason. If Dante has both of these types of feelings, how does he have his faith?

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Original Tercet:
who reigns on high, forbids me to come there
since, living, I rebelled against his law.
He rules the waters and the land and air
and there holds court, his city and his throne.

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To which, if it still your wish to climb,
a worthier spirit shall be sent to guide you.
With her I shal leave you, for the King of Time,
Who reigns on high, forbids me to come there....

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A Steve Harvey meme. Caption your own images or memes with our Meme Generator.

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Original Tercet:
I wavered back: and still the beast pursued,
forcing herself against me bit by bit
until i slid back into the sunless wood

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Original Tercet:
and gaudy pelt. and it would not pass, but stood
so blocking my every turn that time and time again
I was on the verge of turning back to the wood

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Ludacris - Move Bitch Get Out Da Way (HQ)

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Original Tercet:
and the shining strengthened me against the fright
whose agony had wracked the lake of my heart
through all terrors of that piteous night.

Translation:

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Original Tercet:
And I, sick with alarm at his new pallor,
cried out, "How can I go this way when you
who are my strength in doubt turn pale with terror?"

Translation:

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Original Tercet:
And I, sick with alarm at his new pallor,
cried out, "How can I go this way when you
who are my strength in doubt turn pale with terror?"

Commentary:
This tercet is significant because it demonstrates Dante's fear of hell. He is especially frightened because Virgil, his guide, is afraid. If Virgil is afraid, how is Dante supposed to have faith and not be scared?