with laurels, the one headgear fit for use
by a true poet or great conqueror.
Their fewness demonstrates in human kind
16 a shameful lack of will. If I succeed,
like spark from which flames leap, some after me
may be inspired to write with greater skill.
19 The sunrise greets us most days of the year
from several degrees to north or south.
When solar orbit touches other rings
(equators earthly and celestial, 22
ecliptic and the equinoctial)
four circles make three crosses and so bring
more harmony, and Summer can begin. 25
The sun this morning rose at that good point.
When Beatrice looked up at height of noon
no eagle ever fixed upon the sun 28
a gaze as clear, and since reflected rays
rebound to source like pilgrims going home,
twin beams of light now linked her sight and sun. 31
I copied her. Eden was made for ease
of humankind. There it was possible
for me to see what here would make me blind. 34
Gazing into the solar blaze I saw,
like molten silver splashed from crucible,
such fountains of tremendous light I thought 37
that He Who Can had made an extra sun.
I saw too Beatrice now looked upon
the high, eternal, starry, singing wheels 40
so lowering my eyes to rest on hers
I heard them too. Eating a magic herb
changed Glaucus to an ancient Greek sea-god. 43
The love-light in the face of Beatrice
transhumaned me in ways I cannot say.
Of new sensations knowledge cannot speak 46
unless it learns new words. Did God lift up
my eager mind to his eternal sphere?
49 No rain or river filled so vast a lake
as this whole sky now kindled into flame.
The brilliance of its harmony and light
52 provoked an appetite to know the cause,
so she who understood me perfectly
smiling replied before I questioned her,
55 “Dullard, do you not see you’ve left the earth?
Lightning never flashed faster from a cloud
than we ascend to your right place and mine.”
58 Her smile and words erased perplexities
before I found one more. “But why,” said I,
“does solid me rise above lighter things?”
61 Like mother soothing sickly child she said,
“Order is God’s first law. All that He made
have places in eternal excellence, for which
64 in minerals, plants, animals they strive
instinctively, in people willingly.
When ill will leads astray our souls can’t rest
67 until we reach our given place and are
at last in harmony with all that’s best.
We are now soaring to our origin
70 as naturally as a waterfall
pours down a cliff. Those who forget their place
by choosing base delight, are very like
73 materials no artist can use well,
discarded in the midden heaps of Hell.
Climbing them there has purified you, so
guilt cannot weight you. That is why you rise. 76
Innocent souls who stay below defy
nature and reason, like a static flame.”
Pausing, she turned her eyes toward the sky. 79
2: Moon Sphere
1 Some folk in little boats follow my ship
because they like the story in my song.
Let them turn back toward the shore they know
4 unless their craft is strong. I now go far
over a sea no poet crossed before.
Minerva fills my sails. Apollo steers.
7 The Muses indicate each guiding star.
If you are of the few like me who seek
the bread that feeds but never satisfies,
10 you too may launch your vessel on this sea
using my wake as guide. The Argonauts,
those heroes voyaging for the Golden Fleece,
13 when they saw armed men springing from the soil
after their captain ploughed down dragon teeth
were not as much amazed as you will be.
16 Our inborn thirst for God’s sufficiency
kept Beatrice intent on upper skies,
me intent on her eyes, so up we went
19 as swiftly as we looked, until halted
by a wondrous sight. It stopped us short
as
