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The Atlantic Monthly/Volume 18/Number 107/On Translating the Divina Commedia

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Featured in Volume 18, Number 107 of The Atlantic Monthly. (September 1866)

2330558The Atlantic Monthly — On Translating the Divina Commedia1866Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

ON TRANSLATING THE DIVINA COMMEDIA.

THIRD SONNET.

I lift mine eyes, and all the windows blaze
With forms of Saints and holy men who died,
Here martyred and hereafter glorified;
And the great Rose upon its leaves displays
Christ's Triumph, and the angelic roundelays,
With splendor upon splendor multiplied;
And Beatrice, again at Dante's side,
No more rebukes, but smiles her words of praise.
And then the organ sounds, and unseen choirs
Sing the old Latin hymns of peace and love
And benedictions of the Holy Ghost;
And the melodious bells among the spires
O'er all the house-tops and through heaven above
Proclaim the elevation of the Host!

This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.

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