Ever since I got here I always knew that Americans were puritanical at heart, wishing Hell on everyone, claiming Hells influence on everything. So I took upon my self to go to Hell and see what was really there, for the education and benefit of all.
The journey largely mirrors another taken seven hundred years before.
Br Grim
Because of the size of the poem it has to be split in three, so 3 diaries across 3 days, but the entire poem can be seen at Dante's Inferno Revisited and at the Grim & Grimy blogspot
Consider it an ABC of sin
For the record, only the last canto will count (XXXIII)
PROJECT DANTE spoken word Canto's 1-10
Intro Unspoke
If mankind wish to speak of sin,
Then first the thing to look within
These pages; find the fate you chose
If sinner be and never rose.
Canto I Spoke
When I was thirty six years old,
I found myself in forest cold,
For I was lost, from path I'd strayed,
In forest dark with shadows frayed.
How hard it is to fear recall,
(without the shame of garments soiled),
This wood of darkness I did find
Put creepy crawlies on my spine.
So found myself in shadowed vale,
My feet had strayed on evil trail;
As set the sun so I knew fear,
When sudden then a path appear!
Then almost where the hill did rise
I saw a leopard thin and lithe:
And then a lion I beheld,
Full ravenous with fearsome head,
And then a she-wolf showed up there;
Her leanness seemed to bring despair.
And darker beast there never was
Than this foul dog that gnashed its jaws!
This very sight so frightened me
I lost all sense or so it seemed,
And standing there, abandoned hope
Of climbing up that mountain slope!
Before my eyes there then appeared
A vision faint of silence speared;
A man I saw in vastness wild,
'Oh pity me!' were words I cried!
'Please tell me how to dodge this beast
That plans of me to make a feast,'
'Whatever you may be!' I says
He answered me with ghostly breath.
'Not man but once before was man.
In Lombardy my fathers ran,
Sub Julio I sang the praise
Of Anchises and Troy in flames,
A poet I was born before
The son of One true God was born.'
'And you are Virgil,' I replied
'The stream of all fair speech,' I cried!
'The beast that blocks your climbing path
Is metaphor of blood and wrath!
And any man that dares to stray
On road to top by wolf is slain.
I think and judge it best for you
To follow me, I'll lead you through,
For passage you must look below;
Where Phlegathon and Styx fast flow.'
'And so this other path we'll take,'
He lectured as he watched me shake,
'From Lions Gate and fear beyond-
Do you concur? You must respond!
For none alive have gone this road;
Where demons live and Satan bodes,
And if on lower path you fail
In madness then your spirit wail,
For all time until Judgment comes!'
He told me as I stood there numb.
And tells me then of Lady high,
Who'd sent this shade to be my guide,
And how she asked from Heaven Great
That help might come my soul be saved!
And granted was her special prayer,
A path provide if I would dare.
And so then Virgil moved away
And followed him to my dark fate,
On journey deep he guided me
So eyes once blind again might see.
This journey took along a road,
Of deepest pit and sorrow sowed;
That found in me epiphany
When seen I there the things I seen,
And tell now of my evil stroll-
My word is good, so cost my soul!
Canto II
'Righteous anger made me be,
My master is divinity.'
These words which caused me sudden fear;
'Abandon hope, who enter here.'
While shook I there, my master eyed,
This not the hero she'd describe.
'Beyond this gate,' he says to me
'A journey through calamity,
Now you must set your fear at bay
If you would last this fearsome way,
For here you'll see the land of death,
Where first to go is intellect
And you must never hesitate
If you would see far Heaven's gate.'
So saying then he took my hand
And led me down among the damned,
As whispers strange and dreadful sounds
That seemed to come from smoking ground,
And beating hands fanned turbid air
For those who failed to choose dwelt there.
Then Virgil turned to me and said,
(With words of fear twice dipped in dread),
'These souls that writhe before your eyes
Are those in life who chose no side,
And angels who from conflict strayed
When God and Satan battle made.
And so from world made black and white,
These cowards who chose not to fight
The Heavens cast them out in shame
Their greatest sin, they lived in vain.'
'But why so loud do these souls wail?'
I asked him with my lips turned pale.
He looked at me with hooded gaze
'I'll say it short I can,' he says.
'The world will let no fame endure,
Of these poor souls from Heaven spurned,
Beyond all hope we must disdain
These wretched souls that live in pain.'
And so the great one quickly passed
As vision on my eyeball cast,
A banner moved across the plain
And conga line there chased in vain,
A million souls and more I saw,
And some I knew to break God's law:
With sky all filled with wasps and flies
As tears of blood fell from their eyes,
That rained onto a mess of worms
Which feasted as their bellies churned.
Beyond the press of screaming souls
A river cross the landscape flowed,
And then I saw that crowded shore,
'Who are these souls?' I then implored.
But Virgil did not answer me,
He moved away then beckoned he.
So look I then at restless stream,
And shape I see from darkest dream.
A boat then sails from out of dark
By Charon helmed with eyes like sparks,
Then cried he loud in dreadful shout
And gestures as he sort's souls out.
'Oh woe to you corrupted souls!
By Heaven now abandon hope,
I'll take you to the other side,
To darkness, pain, to end of pride!'
And then he turns to me and says
'You shall not pass, O you not dead!'
My guide then Virgil turns to him
And silenced him with sentence grim,
Says then 'Charon, don't torment your mind,
His passage has been willed you'll find,
Now one should do what one is told,
So ferry us cross river cold.'
Then silence fell on grisly cheeks
As round him spirits gnashed their teeth,
And cursed their very lives they did,
Till Charon to their fate would bid.
So pointed he to left and right,
He jerked his thumb in growing spite!
I could not grasp this fearful scale
Of evil in immortal vale,
The burning earth beneath my soles
Was rocking like the Beatles roll,
And sudden I was in a sweat
As whirlwinds from the pit past swept!
The very air began to shake,
The red wind burned, now set ablaze,
My mind recoiled from this foul taint
And keeled I down in sudden faint.
Canto III
I woke to sound of thunderclap,
As if two titans met then clashed,
And stood then I and stared around,
To see what place had me surround.
So looked I down into abyss,
Of endless valley filled with mist
A sombre place around me held
Upon the bitter slopes of hell,
There cries and wails assailed my ears,
That seemed not based on raining fear.
My guide then Virgil leads ahead
While follow I with growing dread,
As we traversed that lonely way
With halting breath I softly prayed.
So on this road to Limbo town
I saw a host all spread around,
And all about us came these sighs
As horde there gathered softly cried.
'You know the crime for which we dwell
Upon these bitter slopes of hell?'
I answered 'No!', as down we climbed,
He stumbled then, as if struck blind.
'The only sin we've ever known
Is not to worship God alone,
These born before the risen Christ,
Salvation lost for non baptized
And I myself am one of these
In circle first who live in peace,
Where only torment that we know
Beyond the reach of Heaven's glow,
No torture but we're left to long
Down here beyond the end of song.'
'Can none be saved?' I begged to know.
He told me this in voice full slow.
'When first I came to this dim place,
I saw a Lord descend in grace
With crown of flames upon his brow!
All sinners at the same time bowed.
And gathered he the kings of old,
Were lifted in his golden robe;
And all the lords of Israel past
Were saved as helpless demons gnashed.'
'But never fore and never since
Has soul been saved from hell by Prince.
Now thirteen hundred years have gone,
And yet poor Virgil lingers on,
For always and a day I'll bide
In death beyond the risen Christ'.
And tears I shed when tale I heard
Of those condemned before the Word,
That God would let these souls be damned
In blinding fog their spirits crammed,
Because they knew not God alone,
He cast them from his shining throne.
And sadness this now caused in me
For those whose soul know no reprieve,
And Hell is always and a day,
In Limbo world of gray on gray.
So Virgil turns and walks on through
To destination next he knew
And followed I in trail of sobs
Till led to fire in the fog.
And names there were who drew me in
And welcomed me to poets ring,
Where Homer, Horace, Ovid dwell
Upon the slopes that circled Hell.
And time was spent with great of kind
Until our path again we find,
So moved we then towards the light
And saw I then a wondrous sight!
A castle stood with shining walls
Surround by moat with tower tall,
And walked we then to this fair stream
That seemed like painted from a dream,
And passed then under seven gates,
That led to garden filled with sage.
And so right there in splendid school
I met the king of golden rule,
Whose eyes were grave and voice was low
In garden filled with gentle glow.
Where lords of thought from ancient times
Here gathered for a sinless crimes,
Where gentle knights and ladies great
Live on towards some unknown date.
So on we walked through Hell's first ring,
With subjects filled but with no King.
And so beyond then Limbo town
We found the gate to second round.
Canto IV
Then as we neared Hell's second gate
I saw a vision carved from hate,
The demon Minas flicked his tail
To whip these sinners till they wailed,
With stripes he left on peoples souls
Their place in hell was bound to roll.
Like connaisseur of things most fine,
He sniffs the souls like rarest wine,
And just like that he drinks them in
Then round himself his tail he spins;
The number round his tail would band
Would indicate where soul would land.
Around again his tail entwines
As judges he these sinners fine,
Then seeing me the demon cried,
'Welcome to Hell, the way is wide,
And you who enter this foul place
Beware you must of path you trace!'
My guide then quickly turned to him
And silenced him with sentence grim.
'O Minas don't torment your mind,
His passing has been blessed you'll find
And one should do just what one's told,
So leave us through this portal cold.'
The demon Minas lashed his tail
But us he could not here assail,
As walked we through to Hell's next round
Assaulted then by dreadful sound,
Laments that beat in turbid air,
For lustful souls in pain lived there!
Around and up these sinners flew,
With noise like million dancing shoes,
As half the sky by starlings blocked,
All beat themselves on burning rocks!
So here in flocks these souls were stuffed,
Yet none of them each other touched
And screamed they did, enough to bleed
My ears and halt me there proceed!
There spied I then in distant vee's
Full ranks of spirits on the breeze,
So asked I master 'Who are those?
That struggle on this bitter flow,
Who fly in line like migrant geese
That pass in ranks that never cease?'
My master stands with brows in knot
Then gestures to infernal flock,
'For mankind's lovers chosen fate,
Your soul consigned to blasted place,
Where there with others on the wind
You suffer for your sins once sinned.'
'So see the Lady scandal caused
And there more souls who broke God's law,
Then Queen of Egypt follows next
With snake still hanging from her breast.'
'There the heroes of fair Troy
All tempest tossed and typhoon toyed,
There Romeo and Juliet
Come battered, in this flock were kept,
And Casanova, Dido too
In ragged lines right past me flew!
Then Virgil names a thousand names
Of infamy that lived in shame,
These ladies great and knights full bold
That flocked within this blizzard's hold.
'My Master, might I call these two?'
I asked as by me cold wind blew,
As spied I there some souls I'd known
Who suffered in this tempest blown.
'I'm sure they'll come.' to me replied
So called I then as by they flied,
Then came there over pair of doves
Who suffered here because of love.
'Oh battered souls Inferno blown,
How came you to this place most low?'
So both came over circled me
And listened to my begging plea!
They answered me with heartfelt cry,
'Our souls were cast here when we died,
For crimes of love commit on world,
Eternal blown our souls here hurled.'
They spoke to me of all they were
And wept I then with tears unspared,
These gentle souls by God's define
Had desecrate the human shrine,
And blessed me that I pitied them,
Instead of choosing to condemn.
These giant tears ran down my cheeks
Between my toes the droplets seek,
My mind recoiled from hellish strain
As down I go in faint again!
Canto V
When once again I found my mind
On stinking ground my head reclined,
And there again my marrow chilled
To see how souls of under killed!
So looking round I found a grave
With slimy scum of spirits paved,
Where sinners turn and turn again
To find therein unknown refrain,
And every where I cast my eyes
New sufferings and more I spy!
In circle third lashed hard with snow,
With knuckles white in cold winds blow!
This rancid bog that we slog through
That stinking clings to robe and shoes,
Grime covered with this putrid sleet
That shrouds these sinners souls beneath.
Over these in menace towered
Burning eyes of three heads glowered!
This vision cast from tales of youth,
Yet standing there in living proof!
His eyes blood red, his belly black
So made he feast, on humans snacked,
The demon Cerebus swipes his claws
Then gores these sinners in his jaws!
The souls all flopped and flipped like eels
That squirm beneath these claws of steel,
And all the while they scream like hogs
Here trapped within this stinking bog.
So Virgil stoops while I in awe,
Then throws he mud into that maw,
Who whimpers like a scalded pup
Then over goes, till toes were up.
So walked we then across this field
Of sinners under slush here sealed,
And Virgil told me who they were
These gluttons who did linger there.
Of sins they'd made against the Lord;
A million years for each drink poured,
Who'd ate until it made them sick
These fatties trapped within this slick,
And others who consumed by drink,
Within this rotten bog they sink,
Where torture makes them turn and turn
In stinking rain unending churns!
Then sudden I saw body proud
Who sat within his muddy shroud,
Then screams he does, his face in pain,
Blue battered by the stinking rain!
'Oh you that travel through this hell
Recall me fore I downward fell?'
'I can't recall,' I answered him
'No person with your visage grim,
But tell me sir about your flaw
That cast you out against God's law,
And tell me then what was your name
Might I recall for point of fame?'
'In living state they called me Chris,
Before I pratfall'd into Dis.
For gluttony I fell in sin,
Beyond all hope of risen Kings.'
And so he sighed and my heart cried
To see this wretch in circle tied
For cravings of this body cell
That sentenced him to stinking Hell,
Last comfort now but memory
As freezing flayed by stinking breeze.
But then he speaks these words I write
That placed upon my heart a blight
As looked he to some future dim,
Then says he this in words full grim.
'I tell a tale of city great,
Where sickness is the native state.
I tell you this, within five suns
The walls will shake to many guns!'
In agony I begged to know
What happens to those fractured souls.
'Can none be saved,' I almost raved,
'The path to hell is merit paved?'
He ghastly said with lips all torn,
'No, none shall live.' he coldly warned.
'I need to know,' to him I plead,
'My fellows all do God's Word heed?'
He looked at me and ghastly said,
'They most come here upon their death
These men whom you before did know
Will suffer here, was always so,
For every hundred doomed to burn
There might be one whom Heaven earns.'
He goes all quite and dips his brow
My guide says, 'He will rise not now,
Until the final Judgment come
When answer all to Savior's drum.'
Then walking down Inferno's path,
He brings us near to Plutus wrath.
Canto VI
'Papa Satan, Demon Leader!'
Plutus screams, O fearful reader!
As shook I from the demon's cries,
The gentle sage, my noble guide
He taps me on the arm and says
'Stay true upon this troubled way,
This monster has no power here
So follow close, the way is shear.'
Then turned he to the demon there
And silenced him with ringing glare.
'O Plutus don't torment you're mind,
His passage has been willed you'll find
While on your spite your spirit feed
While down we go on journey deep!'
So demon drops like wind starved sail
As walked we on to Devil's dale,
Then found ourselves by purple shore
Where all the ills of world were stored.
'This is the Styx!' My master says,
As watched I this foul water spray
With spirits locked within its depths
That writhe in pain and fight for breath.
And all around us sinners roll
Great stones that bind their mortal souls;
In fourth ditch down of prison round
Where guilty those of greed are found.
And all of these before me ranged
Would walk about till bumped then change,
To turn and push this useless rock
Around again till next was knocked,
While all the time at every turn
They cry in pain for Heaven spurned!
'Why do waste and why do squander?'
Called aloud as round they wander,
And so again with stinging cries
They push to other round next try.
'Who are these souls who toil below?'
I asked my guide with voice set low.
He answered me with sideways cast
That held me in with look to last
Before he said these very words
For all to hear, but just here cursed.
'These souls to left and souls to right
Were squint of mind in former life,
Where all the chance to practice art
Of learning how to wealth with part,
Now all the gold that ever rolled
Could not retrieve this soul once sold.'
And I in sadness, heart pierced through
As watched I these poor sinners screwed.
'Did I know them?', I quickly asked
As looked I down on pitied mass.
He looked at me and answered thus
'They're all the same, that greed has brushed.
These misers who endure the fall,
Their features lost beyond recall
Ill giving and ill keeping cost
These sinners in this land of sobs
For thieves indeed of Fortune fair
Here find their souls neath Plutus glare!'
'Away with we, no pity here!'
He scolded as he led me clear.
'But what of 'Fortune' you describe?'
I asked beyond the hated tribe.
'When God Almighty Heaven's made,
There Fortune cast, our luck to trade
That make her now the queen of man,
Can change our ways to also ran.
Now all who live walk on her road
And pray they hit the mother load,
But future lies like rake in grass
When mankind walk on Fortune's path.'
Then Virgil looks to find the time,
Then tells me sharply 'Down must climb!'
And so we toil to that far shore
Where waters black in silence poured.
So stand we then by inky waves
That sudden end this pathway strange,
Beside the waters known as Styx,
To look at nearly made me sick.
And all these souls against each railed,
Their brothers all about them flailed,
And tore each other with their teeth
Enraged they all, each other beat.
'Now here must bide,' my guide then says,
'Those drawn to rage at every breath,
And others who did sullen sigh
When air was bright and sun was high.'
Here sinners foul of both these types
Were locked within these waters ripe,
And as we left, by wails were chased
From there unto far towers base.
Canto VII
As I once said, not long before
We reached that distant tower's door
Our eyes were drawn towards the top,
Where fires flashed like burning dots,
Were answered from that distant spire
That flickered then distinct reply!
Now Hell conspires, back and forth,
As make our way to demon fort.
Then over water comes a boat
That moved as fast as shooting bolt,
And at its helm one spitting man
Who bears us down as if to ram
And cries he in his dreadful shout,
'Now you are caught, O soul without!'
But Virgil stands in helmsman's way
And listened I to hear him say,
'O demon don't torment your mind,
His passing has been blessed you'll find,
So Phleg-yas must respect the truce,
Best ferry us cross muddy sluice.'
Enraged he was, this demon red,
Like one who'd lost on sucker's bet
As Virgil led me on the boat,
Which lower then in water floats.
Then Phleg-yas turns the skiff around
And pointed prow to distant ground,
A hundred leagues and more did pass
Beneath the speeding demon craft.
Then saw a thing of kind obscene
That rose from water in between,
A shade there formed of face I'd known,
Com-patriot of distant home.
Screams, 'Who are you before your time
That floats across this world of slime?
Who are you who goes so free
While lost we are eternally?
How dare you show your pumping vein's
While suffer I inferno chains?'
And on and on O'Reilly goes,
With bleeding lips that never close.
So coldly this way sinner stares,
O'Reilly slyly nostrils flare.
I answered him 'O slave of sin,
You're looking great, so very thin,
And I may come and I may go
But after all you'll never know.'*
This sinner lunges at my boat,
So kicked I swiftly at his throat
And then I pulled my trusty Glock
And had him in the cross-hairs locked.
I shot him then in his fiend head,
Then spat into the river red.
And then my guide, he then rejoiced
As singing raised he up his voice,
And called he to the Heaven's there
With words that burned in blackest air!
Says I to him, 'I'd see him suffer,
Underneath this river smothered!'
He to me 'You'll get your wish,
His torture here provides us bliss,
Our bliss, our bliss, the very joy!
To know his soul is devil toyed!
And then indeed his body torn
As watched we from the skiff past borne,
Consumed his fellows every bit
Till nothing left but bones to spit.
And happy then I was to know
That hated to this bad place go,
And Hell was always and a day
For those who chose to walk this way.
So went we on to distant gate
Where Phleg-Yas left us to our fate,
And spikes arose like tongues of flame
Where devils lived and demon's reigned.
The city Dis arrayed like this
It made me want my pants to piss,
So stood we there upon the brink
With mind so cowed I could not think,
And up upon the rampart wall
A thousand devil's made the call.
'Who is this soul who with out death
Can journey through the land of dread?'
My master made a secret sign,
That devils knew from ancient time.
Suppressed they then their great disdain,
These angels who from Heaven rained,**
But angel gate would open not,
Our path ahead it seemed was blocked.
Then Virgil turns at change in fate,
'Now One descends through Lion's Gate
Who has been charged to clear our way,
Till welcome here we must now pray.'
So knelt we there, with out escape
In fear I wept with mouth agape,
As parley not the lords of rot
And jeered they from the rampart top!
Canto VIII
I frosted white in growing fright,
As sat we there in bloody light!
My guide beside me troubled seemed
While I beside him close to scream,
When seen my master driven back
By Fallen from this evil crack.
'Does anyone from Limbo come,'
I asked him then in halting tongue,
'As deep as we from Lion's Gate
And so down through this Land of Hate?'
And answered me and tale he telled,
Of journey to the deeps of Hell
That he had made when new born shade,
To Judas Ring, a soul to save.
'My worthy guide!' I gladly cried,
'My road is blessed with you beside!'
And then I choked in sudden fear
As saw I Furies standing clear,
Who screamed at us from highest peak
As cowered we in muck and reek!
Now, each of them was robed in snakes,
With ragged nails their breasts they rake,
Then cast they curses down on me,
That burn my ears and sear my cheeks.
And screamed they did for my life's blood
Be captured in a golden cup,
That Gorgon feed, for which they bleed
The fluid from my veins there freed.
'If you would live then shade your eyes,
Or always here as boulder lie!
For Gorgon with her deadly gaze
Will petrify!' My Guide then raves.
And all my knowledge, all my knowing
Couldn't stop blind terror growing,
And all the things that I believed
Right then weren't worth a hill of beans,
And having nothing left but hearing,
Heard I sounds most horrid nearing.
As spirits screamed in sudden fright
And ever louder grew the blight!
It seemed as if a million men
Charged down upon that point and then,
My guide he there releases me
And raised my eyes so I could see.
And what I saw, it blew my mind,
A vision there of hope refined.
I saw an Angel crossing fast,
All shining like a lightning blast.
His blessed feet not touching down,
This messenger of high renown.
He barely seemed to notice us,
As hung we low with heads like thus.
So stands he wide and belows loud,
'O You Cast Out, O Hated Crowd!
Why do you Fallen listen not
When Betters tell you what is what?
Why do you rail against the Fates
That told you to unlock this gate?'
Then pulls he down the fortress door's,
His face wrapped up in other chores,
Then walked He through and followed I
Beyond the broken gate with guide.
My mind would not believe my eyes
As entered we the Land of Flies,
I saw on every side a plain
Of lament and of spreading pain,
With burning graves that bake red hot
And in the graves were sinners caught.
As flames pour from the burning tombs
And smoke rise high in giant plumes,
And everything was bathed in red
The bloody hue from city fed!
At every point I cast my gaze
I see ten thousand burning graves!
And tortured moans and awful wails
Sound round me as we walk this trail.
'O Who can all these sinner's be?'
I asked in shock at what I see.
My master said with steely breath,
'Those heretics who dared mock death,
They looked at world and thought they saw
A kingdom made beyond God's Law,
And so they fry as heretics
In burning graves beyond the Styx.'
Where those who thought there was no rule
In pain now learned their lesson cruel,
That Hell was not the place to go
If care be taken with your soul,
Then walking on he gestures right
As toil we beyond torment and fright.
Canto IX
My master leads me through these gates
Where found myself in land insane,
On every side stood open tombs
That echoed screams through Land of Doom!
So followed we that narrow path
Between these scenes of pain and wrath,
'O Highest Virtue,' I decried,
'Can those within the graves be spied?'
My master turned and told me then,
'Their spirits burn in flame within,
And only on the final day
When Armageddon come their way,
Will flesh from once before be worn
In time to face the Savior's scorn.'
'Within this crematory lied
The ghosts of those who thought when died
That soul would cease to be right there,
So life best lived without a care.'
'And others here burn hotter yet
Who dared to change the Heaven's set,
And some are here who told their peer's
Heretic thoughts masked as ideas,
Of what the Maker might have meant
When Adam first to earth was sent.'
'Now see that hottest grave of all,
To look upon would eyeballs scald,
Where dreadful sinners cast within
Must contemplate their Origins,
Now those who fell from Heavens tree
Must burn in hell for heresy.'
As questioned I my Guide once more
A noise I heard from fires roar,
A voice there was, that cried in pain,
That begged of me to know my name.
This shade who once before was king
Asked how I toured this dreadful ring,
And asked of me, which city claim,
And why I journeyed through the flame.
So Virgil turned and led me to
Where ghost of Nixon rose on through,
With head held high, with look of scorn,
He stared at me as though I worm.
'Who were your fathers?' then he asked,
As burned he in the fire basked.
So told him then of who I was,
My name, my church, my favorite cause,
I told the shade and held none back
As listened he from roasting crack.
Then lectures me, his manner grand
As future there his vision spanned.
And told me tales of things to come
And battles made to future drums.
He tells me then of wars in line
From Friday next till end of time,
Then Nixon asks, 'Is Henry Come?'
With blinking eyes and visage dumb.
Right then I grasped the fate of soul,
The past and future only know
But not the present could they see,
Just echoes of the things that be,
And when the final portal closed
These souls would burn while others rose.
So crept I close then to the brink,
And look then into furnace sink,
My gaze it falls on writhing mass
That cooked within the steaming gas!
One thousand pairs of bloodshot eyes
All looked at me as watched them fry,
And more than just a few of those,
(Who blazed within these burning stones)
Were known to me from books I'd read
As filled they all my reasoned head,
Where any fool who thought to know
Consumed within inferno glow.
But these were damned and all their works
Now used to fan the fires cursed,
However hot a grave might burn
Was ranked from bake, to far more stern,
For those who'd made the bigger sin
Head downwards they were set within.
I catch my foot, I trip head first
Into the burning grave with cursed!
But Virgil he had caught my belt,
So pulled me back before I fell.
Then Virgil turns and cautions there,
'The way is hard and far from fair.
Must caution take in all we do
If journey wish to passage through.'
So walk we on through circle sixth
On broken path with brittle sticks,
That crack and crunched beneath my toes
As down to level seven go.
Canto X
So bide we time to catch some air
Before we left that edge most bare,
To journey down to level round
Where sins and sinners new be found.
We shelter there with both our backs
Sit tight against this masoned* plaque,
With names carved deep within that stone
List all the Popes from number one.
To pass the time and keep me sane
My guide the map of hell explains.
'Beyond this broken ring of stones
Three rings descend to Satan's bones.
The six behind were of their sort,
But those below this circle fort
Reflect the worst that man can be
All held in pain eternally.'
'The way that Hell is crafted here
From top to bottom make it clear,
Those cowards who from pit without,
Then Limbo ring all robed in cloud.'
The next ring round must house those souls
Who lived in mortal sin once sowed,
The third ring holds those gluttons most
Who sit in stinking rain as ghosts.'
'The fourth ring is the place to be
If you have been consumed by greed,
The weight of wealth will drag them down
Upon their death to prison round.'
'We then descend to circle five,
Where wrathful and the sullen thrive.
And then we enter circle six,
The burning graves beyond the Styx.'
'Now comes the time to draw a line
That separates these different crimes,
As all below this bitter rim
Are all those damned by deeper sin.'
'The seventh set in circles three,
Divided by severity.
The first reserved for those who kill,
And those that rob, and things worse still.'
'The next is there for those that die
By their own hand, in forest lie.
The last for those who dare blaspheme
In circle third their ass is reamed.'
'And then we come to circle eight,
A place arranged for those too late,
Where lawyers and the liars crash
With flatterers and like same trash.'
'The final ring is number nine,
The deepest place for foulest crime,
Those traitors who betrayed their lords,
In lake of ice, most hated hoard.'
'So there it is boy, top to pit
The lay of layered prison split,
The sins arranged from least to worst,
A place in death for all those cursed,
Where every sin is marked in line,
How foul it was, how base the crime,
And not one wrong will go unpaid
For fallen chose and those who strayed.
As sat we down to clear the air
I thanked my guide for wisdom shared,
For glad I was to know the way
That God did punish sin that day.
'But tell me, those the Dead Marsh holds,
Or lustful whom the hot winds blow?
If God intends to punish sin,
Then why indeed aren't all within
The City Dis, within its walls,
The better they might feel the fall?'
Then Virgil stands and looks to sky,
To see which stars above fly by.
Replied he then in mocking tone
That I not question wisdom shown.
So went we then to bitter edge
With boulders set like teeth at ledge,
That fell away to darker place
While heart of mine in chest did race.
And so we leave for level round
On path that leads to devil down.