Dante Alighieri Poems

Love and the gentle heart are one thing,
just as the poet says in his verse,
each from the other one as well divorced
as reason from the mind’s reasoning.
...

There is a gentle thought that often springs
to life in me, because it speaks of you.
Its reasoning about love’s so sweet and true,
the heart is conquered, and accepts these things.
...

I have come, alas, to the great circle of shadow,
to the short day and to the whitening hills,
when the colour is all lost from the grass,
though my desire will not lose its green,
so rooted is it in this hardest stone,
that speaks and feels as though it were a woman.
...

All my thoughts always speak to me of love,
Yet have between themselves such difference
That while one bids me bow with mind and sense,
...

For certain he hath seen all perfectness
Who among other ladies hath seen mine:
They that go with her humbly should combine
...

In that book which is
My memory . . .
On the first page
That is the chapter when
...

At whiles (yea oftentimes) I muse over
The quality of anguish that is mine
Through Love: then pity makes my voice to pine
...

I felt a spirit of love begin to stir
Within my heart, long time unfelt till then;
And saw Love coming towards me fair and fain
...

LA DIVINA COMMEDIA di Dante Alighieri INFERNO


Inferno: Canto I
...

I launched her with my small remaining band
and, putting out to sea, we set the main
on that lone ship and said farewell to land.
...