# Inferno Canto  1

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-18 — 1 clipping.*

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> Christianity Index  Divine Comedy Index  Next: Inferno Canto 2  
> 
> Canto I
> 
> Argument
> 
>      The writer, having lost his way in a gloomy forest, and being hindered by
> certain wild beasts from ascending a mountain, is met by Virgil, who promises
> to show him the punishments of Hell, and afterward of Purgatory; and that he
> shall then be conducted by Beatrice into Paradise. He follows the Roman poet.
> 
> Midway the path of life that men pursue
> I found me in a darkling wood astray,
> For the direct way had been lost to view.
> Ah me, how hard a thing it is to say
> What was this thorny wildwood intricate
> Whose memory renews the first dismay!
> Scarcely in death is bitterness more great:
> But as concerns the good discovered there
> The other things I saw will I relate.
> 
> In the midway[1] of this our mortal life,
> I found me in a gloomy wood, astray
> Gone from the path direct: and e'en to tell,
> It were no easy task, how savage wild
> That forest, how robust and rough its growth,
> Which to remember only, my dismay
> Renews, in bitterness not far from death.
> Yet, to discourse of what there good befel,
> All else will I relate discover'd there.
> 
> [1: "In the midway." The era of the poem is intended by these words
> to be fixed to the thirty - fifth year of the poet's age, A.D. 1300. In this
> Convito, human life is compared to an arch or bow, the highest point of which
> is, in those well framed by nature, at their thirty - fifth year.]
> 
> How first I enter'd it I scarce can say,
> Such sleepy dulness in that instant weigh'd
> My senses down, when the true path I left;
> But when a mountain's foot I reach'd, where closed
> The valley that had pierced my heart with dread,
> I look'd aloft, and saw his shoulders broad
> Already vested with that planet's beam,[2]
> Who leads all wanderers safe through every way.
> 
> [2: "That planet's beam." The sun.]
> 
> Then was a little respite to the fear,
> That in my heart's recesses deep had lain
> All of that night, so pitifully past:
> And as a man, with difficult short breath,
> Forespent with toiling, 'scaped from sea to shore,
> Turns to the perilous wide waste, and stands
> 
> A gaze; e'en so my spirit, that yet fail'd,
> Struggling with terror, turn'd to view the straits
> That none hath passed and lived. My weary frame
> After short pause recomforted, again
> I journey'd on over that lonely steep,
> The hinder foot[3] still firmer. Scarce the ascent
> Began, when, lo! a panther,[4] nimble, light,
> And cover'd with a speckled skin, appear'd;
> Nor, when it saw me, vanish'd; rather strove
> To check my onward going; that oft - times,
> With purpose to retrace my steps, I turn'd.
> 
> [3: "The hinder foot." In ascending a hill the weight of the body
> rests on the hinder foot.]
> 
> [4: "A panther." Pleasure or luxury.]
> 
> The hour was morning's prime, and on his way
> Aloft the sun ascended with those stars,[5]
> That with him rose when Love Divine first moved
> Those its fair works: so that with joyous hope
> All things conspired to fill me, the gay skin
> Of that swift animal, the matin dawn,
> And the sweet season. Soon that joy was chased.
> And by new dread succeeded, when in view
> A lion came, 'gainst me as it appear'd,
> With his head held aloft and hunger - mad,
> That e'en the air was fear - struck. A she - wolf
> Was at his heels, who in her leanness seem'd
> Full of all wants, and many a land hath made
> Disconsolate ere now. She with such fear
> O'erwhelm'd me, at the sight of her appall'd,
> That of the height all hope I lost. As one,
> Who, with his gain elated, sees the time
> When all unawares is gone, he inwardly
> Mourns with heart - griping anguish; such was I,
> Haunted by that fell beast, never at peace,
> Who coming o'er against me, by degrees
> Impell'd me where the sun in silence rests.
> 
> [5: "With those stars." The sun was in Aries, in which sign he
> supposes it to have begun its course at the creation.]
> 
> While to the lower space with backward step
> I fell, my ken discern'd the form of one
> Whose voice seem'd faint through lond disuse of speech.
> When him in that great desert I espied,
> 
> "Have mercy on me," cried I out aloud,
> "Spirit! or living man! whate'er thou be."
> 
> He answered: "Now not man, man once I was,
> And born of Lombard parents, Mantuans both
> By country, when the power of Julius yet
> Was scarcely firm. At Rome my life was past,
> Beneath the mild Augustus, in the time
> Of fabled deities and false. A bard
> Was I, and made Anchises' upright son
> The subject of my song, who came from Troy,
> When the flames prey'd on Ilium's haughty towers.
> But thou, say wherefore to such perils past
> Return'st thou? wherefore not this pleasant mount
> Ascendest, cause and source of all delight?"
> "And art thou then that Virgil, that well - spring,
> From which such copious floods of eloquence
> Have issued?" I with front abash'd replied.
> "Glory and light of all the tuneful train!
> May it avail me, that I long with zeal
> Have sought thy volume, and with love immense
> Have conn'd it o'er. My master thou, and guide!
> Thou he from whom alone I have derived
> That style, which for its beauty into fame
> Exalts me. See the beast, from whom I fled.
> O save me from her, thou illustrious sage!
> For every vein and pulse throughout my frame
> She hath made tremble." He, soon as he saw
> That I was weeping, answer'd, "Thou must needs
> Another way pursue, if thou wouldst 'scape
> From out that savage wilderness. This beast,
> At whom thou criest, her way will suffer none
> To pass, and no less hinderance makes than death:
> So bad and so accursed in her kind,
> That never sated is her ravenous will,
> Still after food more craving than before.
> To many an animal in wedlock vile
> She fastens, and shall yet to many more,
> Until that greyhound[6] come, who shall destroy
> 
> [6: This passage has been commonly understood as a eulogium on the
> liberal spirit of his Veronese patron, Can Grande della Scala.]
> 
> Her with sharp pain. He will not life support
> By earth nor its base metals, but by love,
> Wisdom, and virtue; and his land shall be
> The land 'twixt either Feltro.[7] In his might
> Shall safety to Italia's plains arise,
> For whose fair realm, Camilla, virgin pure,
> Nisus, Euryalus, and Turnus fell.
> He, with incessant chase, through every town
> Shall worry, until he to hell at length
> Restore her, thence by envy first let loose.
> I, for thy profit pondering, now devise
> That thou mayst follow me; and I, thy guide,
> Will lead thee hence through an eternal space,
> Where thou shalt hear despairing shrieks, and see
> Spirits of old tormented, who invoke
> A second death;[8] and those next view, who dwell
> Content in fire,[9] for that they hope to come,
> Whene'er the time may be, among the blest,
> Into whose regions if thou then desire
> To ascend, a spirit worthier[10] than I
> Must lead thee, in whose charge, when I depart,
> Thou shalt be left; for that Almighty King,
> Who reigns above, a rebel to His law
> Adjudges me; and therefore hath decreed
> That, to His city, none through me should come.
> He in all parts hath sway; there rules, there holds
> His citadel and throne. O happy those,
> Whom there He chuses!" I to him in few:
> "Bard! by that God, whom thou didst not adore,
> I do beseech thee (that this ill and worse
> I may escape) to lead me where thou said'st,
> That I Saint Peter's gate[11] may view, and those
> Who, as thou tell'st, are in such dismal plight."
> Onward he moved, I close his steps pursued.
> 
> [7: Verona, the country of Can della Scala, is situated between
> Feltro, a city in the Marca Trivigiana, and Monte Feltro, a city in the
> territory of Urbino.]
> 
> [8: "A second death." "And in these days men shall seek death, and
> shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them."
> Rev. ix. 6.]
> 
> [9: The spirits in Purgatory.]
> 
> [10: "A spirit worthier." Beatrice, who conducts the Poet through
> Paradise.]
> 
> [11: The gate of Purgatory, which the Poet feigns to be guarded by an
> angel placed there by St. Peter.]
>
> — *Inferno Canto  1*