THE WORLD'S BEST POETRY

(ff) #1

Where loyal hearts and true
Stand ever in the light,
All rapture through and through,
In God's most holy sight.


FREDERICK WILLIAM FABER.


FROM "THE DIVINE COMEDY."


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HELL.


INSCRIPTION OVER THE GATE.


CANTO III.


"Through me you pass into the city of woe:
Through me you pass into eternal pain:
Through me among the people lost for aye.
Justice the founder of my fabric moved:
To rear me was the task of power divine,
Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.
Before me things create were none, save things
Eternal, and eternal I endure.
All hope abandon, ye who enter here."


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PURGATORY.


PRAYER.


CANTO VI.


When I was freed
From all those spirits, who prayed for others' prayers
To hasten on their state of blessedness;
Straight I began: "O thou, my luminary!
It seems expressly in thy text denied,
That Heaven's supreme decree can ever bend
To supplication; yet with this design

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