Poems by Dante Alighieri

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Paradiso (English)

PARADISO

Paradiso: Canto I

The glory of Him who moveth everything

Doth penetrate the universe, and shine

In one part more and in another less.

Within that heaven which most his light receives

Was I, and things beheld which to repeat

Nor knows, nor can, who from above descends;

Dante Alighieri

Purgatorio (English)

PURGATORIO

Purgatorio: Canto I

To run o'er better waters hoists its sail

The little vessel of my genius now,

That leaves behind itself a sea so cruel;

And of that second kingdom will I sing

Wherein the human spirit doth purge itself,

And to ascend to heaven becometh worthy.

Dante Alighieri

Ulysses' Last Voyage

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.

Far to starboard rose the coast of Spain,

astern was Sardi, Islas at our bow,

and soon we saw Morocco port abeam.

Though I and comrades now were old and slow,

we hauled till nightfall for the narrow sound

Dante Alighieri

To Guido Cavalcanti

Guido, I wish that Lapo, you, and I

could board a vessel, by transporter beam,

that sailed by will alone, wherever seemed

desirable to go, beneath all skies.

I'd have our vessel proof to chance and gale,

and well supplied for pleasant times at sea:

we'd grow into a merry company —

good food and reveling would be the rule.

Dante Alighieri

The Thorn Forest

Then dark with dripping blood it gave a howl

and cried again: "Our damaged branches ache!

Your pillage maims me! Can't you feel at all?

We who were men are now this barren brake.

You'd grant us your respect and stay your hand

were we a thicket not of souls but snakes."

As wood still green starts burning at one end

and from its unlit end the burning stick

Dante Alighieri

Love and the Gentle Heart

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.

Nature craves love, and then creates love king,

and makes the heart a palace where he’ll stay,

perhaps a shorter or a longer day,

breathing quietly, gently slumbering.

Dante Alighieri

O Intelligence Moving The Third Heaven

O Intelligences moving the third heaven,

the reasons heed that from my heart come forth,

so new, it seems, that no one else should know.

The heaven set in motion by your worth,

beings in gentleness created even,

keeps my existence in its present woe,

so that to speak of what I feel and know

means to converse most worthily with you:

Dante Alighieri

Sonnet: I Muse Over

At whiles (yea oftentimes) I muse over

The quality of anguish that is mine

Through Love: then pity makes my voice to pine

Saying, "Is any else thus, anywhere?"

Love smileth me, whose strength is ill to bear;

So that of all my life is left no sigh

Except one thought; and that, because 'tis thine,

Leaves not the body but abideth there.

Dante Alighieri

Of Beauty and Duty

TWO ladies to the summit of my mind

Have clomb, to hold an argument of love.

The one has wisdom with her from above,

For every noblest virtue well designed:

The other, beauty's tempting power refined

And the high charm of perfect grace approve:

And I, as my sweet Master's will doth move,

At feet of both their favors am reclined.

Dante Alighieri

Autumn Song

Know'st thou not at the fall of the leaf

How the heart feels a languid grief

Laid on it for a covering,

And how sleep seems a goodly thing

In Autumn at the fall of the leaf?

And how the swift beat of the brain

Falters because it is in vain,

In Autumn at the fall of the leaf

Dante Alighieri

There Is A Gentle Thought

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.

‘Who is this’ the mind enquires of the heart,

‘who comes here to seduce our intellect?

Is his power so great we must reject

every other intellectual art?

Dante Alighieri

Sonnet: All My Thoughts

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,

A second saith, "Go to: look thou above";

The third one, hoping, yields me joy enough;

And with the last come tears, I scarce know whence:

All of them craving pity in sore suspense,

Trembling with fears that the heart knoweth of.

Dante Alighieri