CANTO I
IN the midway 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 befell, All else will I relate discover\'d
there. How first I enter\'d it I scarce can say, Such sleepy dullness in that
instant weigh\'d My senses down, when the true path I left, But when a
mountain\'s foot I reach\'d, where clos\'d The valley, that had pierc\'d my
heart with dread, I look\'d aloft, and saw his shoulders broad Already
vested with that planet\'s beam, Who leads all wanderers safe through
every way. Then was a little respite to the fear, That in my heart\'s recesses
deep had lain, All of that night, so pitifully pass\'d: And as a man, with
difficult short breath, Forespent with toiling, \'scap\'d from sea to shore,
Turns to the perilous wide waste, and stands At gaze; e\'en so my spirit,
that yet fail\'d Struggling with terror, turn\'d to view the straits, That none
hath pass\'d and liv\'d. My weary frame After short pause recomforted,
again I journey\'d on over that lonely steep, The hinder foot still firmer.