Classic Poem

DANTE. II .

A CELTIC saint the tale once told, —
Ere Dante's birth the tale was old —
That he in faith, with mortal eyes
Had been uplifted through the skies,
And saw the winged in Paradise.
He had been hand led down below
Where Purgatorial sulphurs flow,
And round the furthest confines there
Had seen the vast high wall of Hell:
But not even angel-guides could tell
What horrors Satan might prepare
For inmates at the Judgment-knell;
As yet it was a waste, no soul
Till then might reach that hopeless goal.
But Dante forestalled time, full well
He knew the pits and filled all Hell.