# Paradise Canto 30

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

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> 
> Canto XXX
> 
> Argument
> 
>      Dante is taken up with Beatrice into the empyrean; and there having his
> sight strengthened by her aid, and by the virtue derived from looking on the
> river of light, he sees the triumph of the Angels and of the souls of the
> blessed.
> 
> Noon's fervid hour perchance six thousand miles[1]
> From hence is distant; and the shadowy cone
> Almost to level on our earth declines;
> When, from the midmost of this blue abyss,
> By turns some star is to our vision lost.
> And straightway as the handmaid of the sun
> Puts forth her radiant brow, all, light by light,
> Fade; and the spangled firmament shuts in,
> E'en to the loveliest of the glittering throng.
> Thus vanish'd gradually from my sight
> The triumph, which plays ever round the point,
> That overcame me, seeming (for it did)
> Engirt[2] by that it girdeth. Wherefore love,
> With loss of other object, forced me bend
> Mine eyes on Beatrice once again.
> 
> [1: He compares the vanishing of the vision to the fading away of the
> stars at dawn, when it is noonday 6,000 miles off, and the shadow, formed by
> the earth over the part of it inhabited by the Poet, is about to disappear.]
> 
> [2: "Appearing to be encompassed by these angelic bands, which are in
> reality encompassed by it."]
> 
> If all, that hitherto is told of her,
> Were in one praise concluded, 'twere too weak
> To furnish out this turn. Mine eyes did look
> On beauty, such, as I believe in sooth,
> 
> Not merely to exceed our human; but,
> That save its Maker, none can to the full
> Enjoy it. At this point o'erpower'd I fail;
> Unequal to my theme; as never bard
> Of buskin or of sock hath fail'd before.
> For as the sun doth to the feeblest sight,
> E'en so remembrance of that witching smile
> Hath dispossest my spirit of itself.
> Not from that day, when on this earth I first
> Beheld her charms, up to that view of them,
> Have I with song applausive ever ceased
> To follow; but now follow them no more;
> My course here bounded, as each artist's is,
> When it doth touch the limit of his skill.
> 
> She (such as I bequeath her to the bruit
> Of louder trump than mine, which hasteneth on
> Urging its arduous matter to the close)
> Her words resumed, in gesture and in voice
> Resembling one accustom'd to command:
> "Forth[3] from the last corporeal are we come
> Into the Heaven, that is unbodied light;
> Light intellectual, replete with love;
> Love of true happiness, replete with joy;
> Joy, that transcends all sweetness of delight.
> Here shalt thou look on either mighty host[4]
> Of Paradise; and one in that array,
> Which in the final judgment thou shalt see."
> 
> [3: From the ninth sphere to the empyrean, which is mere light.]
> 
> [4: Of Angels, that remained faithful, and of beatified souls; the
> latter in the form they will have at the last day.]
> 
> As when the lightning, in a sudden spleen
> Unfolded, dashes from the blinding eyes
> The visive spirits, dazzled and bedimm'd;
> So, round about me, fulminating streams
> Of living radiance play'd, and left me swathed
> And veiled in dense impenetrable blaze.
> Such weal is in the love, that stills this heaven;
> For its own flame[5] the torch thus fitting ever.
> 
> [5: Thus disposing the spirits to receive its own beatific light.]
> 
> No sooner to my listening ear had come
> The brief assurance, than I understood
> New virtue into me infused, and sight
> Kindled afresh, with vigour to sustain
> Excess of light however pure. I look'd;
> And, in the likeness of a river, saw
> Light flowing, from whose amber - seeming waves
> Flash'd up effulgence, as they glided on
> 'Twixt banks, on either side, painted with spring,
> Incredible how fair: and, from the tide,
> There ever and anon, outstarting, flew
> Sparkles instinct with life; and in the flowers
> Did set them, like to rubies, chased in gold:
> Then, as if drunk with odours, plunged again
> Into the wondrous flood; from which, as one
> Re - enter'd, still another rose. "The thirst
> Of knowledge high, whereby thou art inflamed,
> To search the meaning of what here thou seest,
> The more it warms thee, pleases me the more,
> But first behoves thee of this water drink,
> Or e'er that longing be allay'd." So spake
> The day - star of mine eyes: then thus subjoin'd:
> "This stream; and these, forth issuing from its gulf,
> And diving back, a living topaz each;
> With all this laughter on its bloomy shores;
> Are but a preface, shadowy of the truth
> They emblem: not that, in themselves, the things
> Are crude; but on thy part is the defect,
> For that thy views not yet aspire so high."
> 
> Never did babe, that had outslept his wont,
> Rush, which such eager straining, to the milk,
> As I toward the water; bending me,
> To make the better mirrors of mine eyes
> In the refining wave: and as the eaves
> Of mine eyelids did drink of it, forthwith
> Seem'd it unto me turn'd from length to round.
> Then as a troop of maskers, when they put
> Their vizors off, look other than before;
> The counterfeited semblance thrown aside:
> So into greater jubilee were changed
> Those flowers and sparkles; and distinct I saw,
> Before me, either court of Heaven display'd.
> 
> O prime enlightener! thou who gavest me strength
> On the high triumph of Thy realm to gaze;
> Grant virtue not to utter what I kenn'd.
> 
> There is in Heaven a light, whose goodly shine
> Makes the Creator visible to all
> Created, that in seeing Him alone
> Have peace; and in a circle spreads so far,
> That the circumference were too loose a zone
> To girdle in the sun. All is one beam,
> Reflected from the summit of the first,
> That moves, which being hence and vigour takes.
> And as some cliff, that from the bottom eyes
> His image mirror'd in the crystal flood,
> As if to admire his brave apparelling
> Of verdure and of flowers; so, round about,
> Eying the light, on more than million thrones,
> Stood, eminent, whatever from our earth
> Has to the skies return'd. How wide the leaves,
> Extended to their utmost, of this rose,
> Whose lowest step embosoms such a space
> Of ample radiance! Yet, nor amplitude
> Nor height impeded, but my view with ease
> Took in the full dimensions of that joy.
> Near or remote, what there avails, where God
> Immediate rules, and Nature, awed, suspends
> Her sway? Into the yellow of the rose
> Perennial, which, in bright expansiveness,
> Lays forth its gradual blooming, redolent
> Of praises to the never - wintering sun,
> As one, who fain would speak yet holds his peace,
> Beatrice led me; and, "Behold," she said,
> "This fair assemblage; stoles of snowy white,
> How numberless. The city, where we dwell,
> Behold how vast; and these our seats so throng'd,
> Few now are wanting here. In that proud stall,
> On which, the crown, already o'er its state
> Suspended, holds thine eyes - or e'er thyself
> Mayst at the wedding sup - shall rest the soul
> Of the great Harry,[6] he who, by the world
> Augustus hail'd, to Italy must come,
> Before her day be ripe. But ye are sick,
> And in your tetchy wantonness as blind,
> As is the bantling, that of hunger dies,
> And drives away the nurse. Nor may it be,
> That he,[7] who in the sacred forum sways,
> Openly or in secret, shall with him
> Accordant walk: whom God will not endure
> I' the holy office long; but thrust him down
> To Simon Magus, where Alagna's priest[8]
> Will sink beneath him: such will be his meed."
> 
> [6: "Of the great Harry." The Emperor Henry VII, who died in 1313.
> "Henry, Count of Luxemburg, held the imperial power three years, seven months
> and eighteen days from his first coronation to his death. He was a man wise,
> and just, and gracious; brave and intrepid in arms; a man of honor and a good
> catholic; and although by his lineage he was of no great condition, yet he was
> of a magnanimous heart, much feared and held in awe; and if he had lived
> longer, would have done the greatest things." G. Villani.]
> 
> [7: Clement V. See Canto xxvii. 53.]
> 
> [8: "Alagna's priest." Pope Boniface VIII. Hell, Canto xix. 79.]
>
> — *Paradise Canto 30*