CONTENTS

       Cover

       Title Page

Inferno

Canto I

Canto II

Canto III

Canto IV

Canto V

Canto VI

Canto VII

Canto VIII

Canto IX

Canto X

Canto XI

Canto XII

       Canto XIII

       Canto XIV

       Canto XV

       Canto XVI

       Canto XVII

       Canto XVIII

       Canto XIX

       Canto XX

       Canto XXI

       Canto XXII

       Canto XXIII

       Canto XXIV

       Canto XXV

       Canto XXVI

       Canto XXVII

       Canto XXVIII

       Canto XXIX

       Canto XXX

       Canto XXXI

       Canto XXXII

       Canto XXXIII

       Canto XXXIV

       Classic Literature: Words and Phrases Adapted from the Collins English Dictionary

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CANTO I

      Midway upon the journey of our life

      I found myself within a forest dark,

      For the straightforward pathway had been lost.

      Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say

      What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,

      Which in the very thought renews the fear.

      So bitter is it, death is little more;

      But of the good to treat, which there I found,

      Speak will I of the other things I saw there.

      I cannot well repeat how there I entered,

      So full was I of slumber at the moment

      In which I had abandoned the true way.

      But after I had reached a mountain’s foot,

      At that point where the valley terminated,

      Which had with consternation pierced my heart,

      Upward I looked, and I beheld its shoulders,

      Vested already with that planet’s rays

      Which leadeth others right by every road.

      Then was the fear a little quieted

      That in my heart’s lake had endured throughout

      The night, which I had passed so piteously.

      And even as he, who, with distressful breath,

      Forth issued from the sea upon the shore,

      Turns to the water perilous and gazes;

      So did my soul, that still was fleeing onward,

      Turn itself back to re-behold the pass

      Which never yet a living person left.

      After my weary body I had rested,

      The way resumed I on the desert slope,

      So that the firm foot ever was the lower.

      And lo! almost where the ascent began,

      A panther light and swift exceedingly,

      Which